Gods of Geiis
by Demon of Zero
Summary: Much like any other day, the student council is busy at work pretending to do work. And what better way to busy themselves than a board game? A very... special board game. Soon, the council will find out just how easy it is to get sucked into a good game.
1. Chapter 1

Yeah. I'm doing it again, I know.

I don't own Code Geass, or any other things referenced within this fic.

* * *

Ashford Academy, the most prestigious school in Area 11. Surely the students within must mirror this statement?

Nope.

Today we find the student council messing around in the Student Council Room, with only one of them actually making an attempt, half-hearted though it may be, to work.

"Uhh, guys? Where'd Milly go?" Gino asked, still holding Rivalz in a headlock.

"It's Madame President, pretty boy!" Rivalz yelled, struggling to release himself. Gino didn't notice. "... Wait, he's got a point. Where did she go?"

Lelouch answered, calmly as usual. "She said she needed to pick someone up at the airport and left it at that."

"She said it would be a suprise." Shirley, over by the television, chimed in.

"Oh, really? I love suprises!" Gino shouted, breaking the headlock to throw his arms in the air.

Lelouch frowned, musing to himself. 'They really did come here just to play around, didn't they? And there's still the issue with Anya...' He had, at first, worried that the petite knight would remember him. But when she showed no signs of memory, he assumed she had forgotten. After all, they never talked much, despite sharing a home. But the Aries Villa was pretty big, and she never was very social. Neither was he, for that matter.

But then she showed him the picture. The picture of him in the garden, smiling at a camera that he assumed she was holding.

And that was where the questions really started. Lelouch never liked taking pictures, ever. Getting him to take a picture spontaneously was not a simple matter. It never had been. So when Anya showed him a picture of himself as a child, she had to have known him well enough to get him to take a picture. Yet he had no memory of it, and neither did she.

Which pointed to foul play by his father, the man who rewrote the memories of the entire Ashford student body to suit his whims. 'But why? What is it about Anya that would make him rewrite my memories?' He wondered, stealing the occasional glance at her.

She sat off to the side, watching the horseplay between Rivalz, Gino, and Suzaku. Now Gino had an arm thrown over a struggling Rivalz, as the bluenette attempted to free himself from the crushing weight of Gino. Suzaku was attempting to break it up, but his thoughts were cut off by an assault from everyone's favorite stray; Arthur.

"Yeoooooow!" Suzaku yelped, jumping around and clutching his injured pointer finger.

"Recorded." Anya's monotone cut in, the mechanical clicking noise of her phone going off. And then she seemed to notice Lelouch looking at her, and turned to him.

He felt a shiver go up his spine, and turned away. How was it that a girl her age showed less emotion than C.C., who had entire centuries to build up her facade? It was unnatural... and that brought his thoughts back to the possible tamperings of his father.

"Heeeey, everyone! Guess who I brought along!" Milly shouted, dragging in the last person Lelouch had expected to see.

"Hello, everyone." Nina spoke, waving slightly. She looked around the room, and a strange look appeared on her face, before she went back to normal.

"Nina!" Shirley yelled, rushing over and hugging the girl. "We missed you!"

"I-I missed you too, Shirley." Nina said, attempting to keep Shirley from crushing her.

No one brought up the scene in China, some because they didn't know about it, and others because they didn't feel like bringing it up. Why ruin the reunion?

Lelouch commented on something no one else had noticed, save Anya who simply didn't care. "Milly, what's with the suitcase?" He asked.

And this led to a flood of questions, before Milly sauntered over to the table and set it down. "Weeeeellll, I was digging around through my Grandfather's old stuff, and I found something neat." She purposely left out just what it was, waiting for someone to ask.

"Neat how?" And leave it to Rivalz to oblige her.

With a flourish, Milly undid the clips holding the case together, and opened it. By this point everyone's eyes were on her, some excited, and others apathetic. (I'll let you guess...) and so when she opened the case up to reveal the contents, many of them were suprised and a bit confused.

Lelouch spoke first, incredulous. "Milly... this is a board game." And indeed it was.

The inside of the top half of the case was a dark black velvet, with golden letters traced over it. "Gods of Geiis", it said. Beneath that was a portrait of what seemed like a group of adventurers fighting some sort of giant monster. Lelouch figured he knew what kind of board game it was.

Everyone had now taken up a seat at the table, and all but Lelouch, Rolo, and Anya were looking at the picture with some sort of emotion. "I know what this is, it's one of those old tabletop RPG games isn't it?" Rivalz asked.

Milly nodded vigorously. "Yep! And we're all gonna play it, alright?"

Lelouch was first to respond. "No. I'm not being pulled into this."

"Aww, c'mon Lelouch! You could actually have some muscle in this game!" Suzaku was all for it.

Lelouch gave him a scathing look, and the Knight of seven thought it was just because of the crack at his physique. It wasn't.

It pained Lelouch to admit it, but he could say without a doubt that Suzaku was no longer his friend. He had once been closer to Lelouch than everyone but his sister and Milly, and now he was nothing but a traitor to him. Even after his capture at Suzaku's hands, he felt there may be some redemption for the brunette. But then he used Nunnally against him. He had USED her! Lelouch had broken off ties with the empire specifically to prevent them from being used as bargaining chips, and Suzaku had thrown all of it away, before being the one to use his sibling like a pawn.

It was on that day that Lelouch had actually begun seeing Rolo as more than just another pawn, aswell. The boy had followed Lelouch and Suzaku to the roof, and froze the traitor with his Geass. Just long enough for Lelouch to tell Nunnally that he loved her. He had actually spoken to his beloved sibling after so long, and it was thanks to Rolo. While the boy may have been masquerading as his sibling, he couldn't hold it against him. Orders were orders.

"Please, Lulu?" Shirley broke his musing with a begging pout.

It seemed that during his thinking, everyone but Rolo, Anya, and he had decided to play.

"If big brother plays, I will." Rolo spoke, smiling shyly.

"See, come on Lelouch, if everyone plays I'm sure Anya will." Gino patted him on the back.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Fine."

This one word resulted in cheering from most of the council, and then everyone looked to Anya. "I'll play." Her monotone was seriously creepy.

"Alright! We've got nine players, this'll be great!" Milly cheered, pulling out the rule book. "Give this book a quick once over, and let's get to it!"

* * *

It had taken nearly an hour, but everyone was now familiar with the rules of the game. The nine students were seated at the table, almost all scribbling something down on their respective character sheets.

The game itself looked rather simple. After choosing a race, you were to choose a class. Each class had three "trees" of specialization, from which you would pick two. After that, you were to roll four six sided dice, and double the number you got on each roll. If the roll was less than three, you rolled another die and added that number to all numbers less than three. These would determine your stats.

The stats were simple, Stamina was your health. Wisdom was primarily for casters, Strength primarily for the tanks, and Dexterity for the stealthy and ranged attackers.

Each stat would affect your character, no matter what they were, but it was best to put your highest score into your classes primary stat.

"Alright! Everyone chosen their races and classes yet?" Milly gave a pointed look to Lelouch, who had yet to write anything down.

The purple eyed boy sighed, swiftly writing down his decisions, before handing the paper over to Milly. She nodded. "I figured as much."

He sighed. "Am I that easy to read, Milly?" He knew he wasn't. She just knew him too well.

"For me, yep." She replied.

"What did Lulu pick, Milly?" Shirley asked the question everyone wanted answered. Even Anya was curious.

Lelouch nodded at Milly's questioning glance, and the girl smirked. "He chose a necromancer, snow elf. Necromancer I figured, but I thought he'd be a dark elf. Any reason you chose a snow elf?" Milly asked, curious.

Lelouch gave a whimsical smile, remembering a conversation with a certain witch.

* * *

_Lelouch sat within a small cabin on one of the many peaks in the Narita mountain range, looking over a small book that showed various water reserves beneath the mountain. He was dressed in his Zero garb, save the mask, and two JLF guards sat behind him, casually playing shogi. They had been Geassed not to notice him._

_He looked out the window, admiring the scenery, only for something to catch his eye. An unusual shade of green stuck out among the white._

_"C.C." He muttered, standing. He closed his book, sat it down on the table, and walked out to meet her. As he came within a few yards of her, he let himself be known. "C.C., what are you doing here?" He asked._

_C.C. turned, giving him a coy smile. "I said that I would protect you, did I not?"_

_"Even so, isn't this going a little far?" He responded._

_She turned, giving a frown he didn't see. "I've been wondering about something, Lelouch. Why are you Lelouch?"_

_Lelouch grimaced. "I've no time to discuss philosophy with you."_

_C.C. didn't waver as she answered. "You changed your family name to Lamperouge, and yet you kept your given name, Lelouch. How sentimental... you just couldn't let go of the past, could you?"_

_"Well, C.C. swings to the other extreme, doesn't it? It's not a human name." He replied._

_C.C. suddenly turned to face him, her gaze piercing. He flinched. A moment of silence passed by, before she spoke._

_"Lelouch? Do you know why snow is white?" She asked. Seeing she had his attention, she continued. "Snow is white because it's forgotten what color it's supposed to be." She said, with a small smile._

* * *

"I like snow." He said after a small pause.

This answer caused Rivalz, Suzaku, Shirley, and Gino to nearly fall over, as they had been leaning in to hear his reasoning. They weren't expecting something so simple.

"Right. Well, everyone else?" Milly asked.

They all handed Milly their sheets, one by one. "Alright, I'll read them off just to be sure. Lelouch, Snow Elf Necromancer?"

Lelouch nodded.

"Uh huh, now. I'm an Elven Shaman, Rivalz is a Satyr warrior, Shirley is a half-elf priest, and Nina is a beastfolk bard?" The three in question nodded.

"Anya is a dark elf hunter?" Milly asked, and Anya nodded. "And Gino is a Fallen monk?"

"Yep!" Gino replied, happy with his choice. Apparantly, one of the monk's specializations allowed the use of exotic weapons. Namely, a twin headed polearm. Where have we seen one of those before, I wonder... The choice to be Fallen, however, was a bit odd. The Fallen were humans who had been manipulated by a powerful demon lord, and twisted in his image. They had been freed from him when their current leader, who had remained in control of herself, killed him. Now they followed her.

It seemed a bit out of character for Gino. Everyone but Anya seemed a bit shocked.

"Right. Rolo is a human rogue." The boy nodded shyly, maintaining his act.

His choice to be a rogue had left Suzaku looking nervous. Lelouch was torn between exasperated and amused. One of the rogue trees was "assassination", and it was obvious Rolo would choose that.

Oddly enough, the rule book said that tree selection would happen after the game began. Lelouch was curious, but decided to leave it.

"And last but not least, Suzaku is an Ascended Paladin?" She asked.

"Yeah." Suzaku rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "So, we roll to determine our stats now?" He asked.

"Yep, I'm first!" Milly rolled all of her dice at once, giving moderate results.

This trend continued for a while, no one rolling a two until it was Suzaku's turn. He had rolled a six, a five, and two twos. He rolled another die, landed three, and the twos were now seven.

Lelouch's turn finally came, and he accepted the dice from Anya, fighting down a shiver as they locked eyes. How was she so damn emotionless? It was creepy as hell.

He rolled all of his dice at once, much like Milly. And they all landed on six. He blinked.

"Hot damn, Lelouch, did you swap with loaded dice when we weren't looking?" Gino asked.

Lelouch shrugged. 'Rolo had something to do with this, I'm sure.' He thought.

And it turns out he had. The cherubic assassin had used his Geass to give himself two sixes, and give Lelouch all four sixes.

"Right! Take a few minutes to put the stats where you want them, and then we roll this twenty sided die to see who starts where." Milly announced.

After five minutes, everyone had finished putting their stats in order. "Alright, here's the game board. It's huge!"

And indeed it was. The board unfolded to be a three by four rectangle, with beautifully drawn landscapes. Everyone looked at the board for a few moments, a bit shocked at just how well drawn the thing was.

"Recorded." Anya's dull voice snapped them out of their stupor, as she put her phone back down.

"Uh, right. Here are the figures that represent your characters. Roll the twenty sided die, and then place them where it says to." Milly said.

Lelouch inspected the little plastic figure he'd been given. It depicted a silver haired man with one hand in the air, covered in dark energy. Around the base of the figure, several skeletal hands were reaching up, grasping at air.

The rolls commenced, leaving Rivalz, Nina, and Rolo in the Field of the Ancients, homeland of the Beastfolk. Milly and Shirley ended up together, at the gates of Windguard, the primary Human settlement. Suzaku was all alone in Cursedwoods, while Anya and Gino were together in the swamplands.

Finallly, it was Lelouch's roll. "Milly, what is the goal of this game, anyway?" He asked, as he rolled the die. He landed in the swamplands with Gino and Anya. 'Oh dear. Two knights of the round and little ol' Zero. It's a good thing it's just a board game, or I'd be in trouble.' He thought, as he sat his game piece on the board.

The moment he did so, however, he regretted it. "Ah, what the hell is that light!" Rivalz shouted, covering his eyes. And, indeed, there was an extremely bright light coming from the board.

The others had similar reactions, Anya having gone so far as to hide behind the nearest perons. That being Lelouch.

Said purple eyed schemer noticed something in the center of the light that horrified him. "Geass!" He shouted in suprise, alarming Suzaku.

"You do remember!" Was the last thing he heard as the flash grew brighter, before everything went black.

* * *

C.C. blinked, as Kaguya stopped speaking to her. She opened her eyes, only to find that everything had stopped. She knew exactly what happened. "Leave it to Lelouch to find _that _thing." She muttered, bringing herself to a standing position.

She smirked, already having an idea of what to do. "I'm sure this will be fun. It's been so long since I've visited Geiis." She looked at Kaguya for a moment, her smirk widening. "And why not bring a friend?"

The two had been moved to Area 11, in a hidden safe house, after an attempt on Kaguya's life. A trained assassin had tailed her all throughout a Chinese city, before attempting to knife her once no witnesses were about. While Kaguya was supposed to be guarded at all times, she frequently escaped her entourage and went off on her own.

Luckily, C.C. had been following her of her own accord, and she was much more difficult to shake than the Black Knight bodyguards. After all, she had been on both sides of the chase for many years.

She stepped in just as the man was about to plunge the knife into her back, landing a powerful kick directly to his skull. The man was knocked out cold instantly. A quick interrogation by Zero himself revealed the man to be working for Brittania. And so, since Kaguya's safety was obviously endangered in a place such as the Chinese Federation, they had opted to move her somewhere entirely different. Kaguya had pleaded to bring C.C. along, and so here they were.

And so, C.C. lifted the petite girl over her shoulder with no problem, and began to walk the streets of the Tokyo Settlement. Her goal? Ashford Academy.

* * *

V.V. frowned in annoyance as scientists and soldiers alike stopped moving. "Of course." Someone had found _that_ particular artifact. The one that he had spent many years of his long life attempting to destroy. In the end, both he and Charles had seen fit to give it to someone who would have no interest in it whatsoever; Marianne.

After V.V. had killed her, he had actually lost track of the blasted thing, before finally finding it in Reuben Ashford's hands. He had decided to leave it, considering the headmaster would likely never touch it.

But he had forgotten to consider his grand daughter, who had a bad habit of being unpredictable. and now he was stuck in a time-void for who knows how long, since the stasis didn't effect code-bearers.

And suddenly, someone opened communications with him. "Jeremiah?" V.V. asked, suprised.

"Yes, Mi'lord. I seem to have encountered something strange. It seems that the entirety of area eleven is under and effect similar to that of Rolo's Geass, but it's gone on far too long for the boy to be the cause. And my Geass canceler seems to be able to effect only myself at the moment."

"Jeremiah, listen to me carefully. The entire world is trapped in what is essentially Rolo's Geass, but improved. It is not merely the perception of time that has stopped, but _time itself_. Planes in the air have stopped. Cars on the road have stopped. Chemical reactions in progress have stopped. And it is because of an artifact more ancient than myself or C.C."

Jeremiah gasped. "Surely such an artifact is well under control, master V.V.?"

"I had thought it to be. I was incorrect. You are to go to Ashford Academy, search the premises for a bright tower of light with a glowing Geass crest inside, and then touch it. You will know what to do from there. One last note; your current mission is suspended until this incident is over. You will work with whoever started this, and help them end it. Regardless of who else is involved... Ah, I almost forgot the most important part. The light will take you into a sort of pocket dimention known as Geiis, which is inhabited by beings of that world. Nine beings of our world have entered, you will not intentionally kill any beings from our world. The consequences could be terrible."

"I understand, my lord. I will be off!" Jeremiah cut the communications.

"I've chosen my champion, C.C., let us hope he and yours will be able to work with one another." The blonde child grinned. "I suppose this is a true test of Jeremiah's loyalty. It's either my orders not to act, or his vengeance on Lelouch. Or, should I say, Zero?" The childish boy grinned, before making his way to his personal chambers.

Nothing better to do than sleep, he figured.

* * *

Lelouch awoke to a weight on his chest. He opened his eyes blearily, and spotted a head of pink hair. "Euphy..?" He muttered, half asleep.

"Euphy? You mean like Princess Euphemia?" A voice asked, snapping him out of his sleep induced haze. Lelouch looked over the pink haired person sleeping ontop of him, noticing a grinning blonde. With red skin and two horns on his forehead.

The blonde was dressed in loose brown pants, tied to him with a dark green rope-like belt, and a white top that reminded Lelouch of Suzaku's old karate gi. On his feet he wore a pair of sturdy looking sandles, which showed off his clawed feet. His hands were bare, revealing more claws. His eyes were a piercing blue, a sort of contrast to his red skin, with slit pupils. The horns on his forehead were small, only three inches or so, and curved upwards. The horns themselves were colored a greyish white. His hair fell to his shoulders, and on his back he carried an odd weapon.

The weapon looked very familiar to Lelouch, and he had a feeling he knew why. "Gino? What the hell happened? You're red!" He asked, trying to sit up without waking the still sleeping Anya. After a few moments, he situated himself in such a way that Anya was in his lap, as he leaned up against a nearby rock.

"Yeah? So what, you're blue." The cheeky knight responded. As he moved, Lelouch noticed something. Gino also had the stereotypical "devil" tail. And it was waving back and forth at random.

Lelouch's eyes widened, and he quickly checked his hands. Gino was right, they were a pale, icy blue. And his nails were purple. Not painted, but literally purple. They were quite a bit sharper than before, but not nearly as claw-like as Gino's. "This... how could this... what the hell happened?" He paused as Anya began to stir, taking a good look at her.

The girl's hair was still pink, and still in her normal hair style. She was still the same height as before, and her skin was charcoal black. She was dressed in what appeared to be a pair of padded leather pants, simple boots, and a cloth shirt. Nearby, he spotted what he assumed to be her weapon. A simple rifle, made of wood and metal. Slung over it was a large sack, filled with ammunition for the weapon. With her eyes closed, Lelouch couldn't tell if they had changed.

Lelouch attempted to wake Anya up, seeing as she was almost there herself. "Anya, wake up." He said, shaking her shoulder gently.

Her eyes, now crimson, opened, and she turned to look at him. "Lulu?" She asked, hopeful.

"W-what?" Lelouch muttered, feeling something go off in his memories.

* * *

_A young girl was curled up beneath a tree, sleeping peacefully. The garden of the Aries Villa was always so peaceful, she never had any problems finding a good spot to relax. She had been taking pictures with her phone, when she fell asleep._

_And this was how a young boy with raven hair found her._

_The boy was dressed in a white shirt and pants combo, with gold trim. Over that he wore a white jacket with golden trim and purple cuffs. His purple eyes shone is amusement as he spotted the snoozing girl._

_Upon closer inspection, the girl had pink hair tied loosely with a yellow ribbon. She wore a simple red dress, white around the chest._

_He walked over to the girl, kneeling down to put a hand on her shoulder. He gave a gentle shake. "Anya, wake up."_

_The girl's eyes opened slowly, and she smiled when she saw the boy. "Lulu. How long was I sleeping?"_

_Lelouch smiled gently. "Not long. Nunnally was just a bit worried, is all."_

_Anya yawned, before stretching. "Alright... let's go see Nunna."_

_"I'm sure she'll be glad to see the plants didn't eat you. Really, mother must stop giving her these ideas..." Lelouch muttered, exasperated. He held out a hand to help her up. "Shall we?" He asked._

_She accepted his hand, and he pulled her to a standing position. "Thanks, Lulu."_

* * *

"What... what was that? A memory..." Lelouch leaned back against the rock, a hand on his head.

"So you remember too, right Lulu?" Anya asked, hopeful.

Gino was shocked. In all the time he had known Anya, she had never shown this much emotion. "Anya, am I missing something?" He asked, scratching his head.

Anya looked at him and smiled. "I can remember. Lulu and I have history." She removed herself from his lap, and Lelouch looked around to figure out just where the hell the were.

Judging by the humidity, the foliage, and the murky water, Lelouch figured they were in a swamp. Brilliant.

"History?" Gino asked, confused. "You showed me some of your memories on the phone, but I never saw Lelouch in any."

Lelouch sighed. He could lie, but he just didn't feel like it. "That's because I don't like being photographed. She only has one picture of me, in the Aries Villa."

Gino's eyes widened. "And that would make you... Prince Lelouch vi Brittannia."

"It was my name, until my father threw my sister and I aside..." Lelouch replied. "And, moreso, it seems the man has manipulated the memories of Anya and I."

"How can he have done that?" Gino asked. "That kind of power... it just doesn't exist... does it?"

Anya spoke up, seated on the rock Lelouch was leaning against. "Believe me, Gino, it does."

"Considering we appear to have been sucked into a board game, I would have thought you to be a bit more open minded, Gino." Lelouch mentioned.

"Hahahah! I guess you're right, Lelouch old boy. Er... wait. That reminds me. Suzaku was yelling something about you remembering before the light got us, wasn't he? I don't think he meant you remembering Anya." Gino stared at him, and Lelouch could feel Anya's gaze on his back.

"He's right, Lulu... what was that about?" Anya asked.

"... I'd rather not say?" Lelouch tried.

"Too bad." Was her answer. "It's best to just tell us, Lulu. We'll just keep bothering you until you do."

"Yeah, Lelouch, it's not like we'd have to kill you or anything, yeah?" Gino said, attempting to make him feel better. It didn't work.

"Yes, actually, you would!" Lelouch snapped. "You want to know? Fine. Just over a year ago I found myself in the back of a truck being driven by terrorists. Inside the truck was a capsule said to contain poison gas." He continued after they showed signs of shock, remembering the first major spectacle in Area Eleven. "Soon we were in the abandoned subway tunnels, and the truck stopped. The side opened, and I was preparing to leave. Everything would've ended there if Suzaku hadn't shown up and kicked me in the face." Gino couldn't help but laugh at that, and even Anya looked a bit amused, despite the severity of the story.

"And then we discussed what was going on. The capsule opened." They gasped. "And a green haired woman fell out." And now they looked even more suprised.

"Wait, wait, wait! You're telling me that the poison gas container that Prince Clovis ordered a purge to find... had a girl in it? No gas?" Gino was flabbergasted.

"Yes. This girl was one of two sources of Geass, the power the Emperor used to rewrite our memories. The other is currently in the Chinese Federation. Now, continuing my story." Lelouch gave Gino a look.

He shrugged, sheepishly.

"Long story short, Suzaku's superiors showed up, ordered him to kill me, and shot him when he refused. I escaped due to a timely explosion from the truck, eventually gained a Geass power of my own, killed Clovis' Royal Guard, and turned the tide of the battle from Clovis to the rebels." Lelouch sighed. "And then I forced Clovis to order a ceasefire, and killed him."

There it was. The bomb had been dropped. Now, while the two of them were shocked speechless, he had to run. Hopefully he could hit the forest before Anya could get her rifle.

Thoughts of escape were dashed as he found Gino directly infront of him, crouched down to his eye-level.

"So..." Gino drawled. "You're telling me that you're Zero, you didn't remember for an entire year that you were Zero, and now Suzaku knows that you remember being Zero. Am I right?"

Lelouch nodded, hesitantly.

"Alright. Now, just tell me why you went about being Zero." He asked, suprisingly calm.

"I have a few reasons." Lelouch replied, looking him in the eyes. "Firstly, the Emperor called off the investigation of my mother's murder, and swept it under the rug. I wanted to find her killer and end him."

Gino's eyes narrowed a bit. "Keep going."

Lelouch sighed. "My main reason was to make the world a better place for Nunnally."

Gino fell back on his ass, having been crouching to get to eye level. "Viceroy Nunnally? That's right, she's your sister, isn't she?" Gino had just realized this. "And you did this for her?"

"Yes. Crippled and blind as she is, she doesn't fit with Brittannia's ideals. I wanted to destroy Brittannia and start over. As is, the "Holy Empire" is slowly conquering the world, forcing it into submission." He grimaced. "I can't allow that to happen."

Anya, who had remained silent up until now, spoke. "He's right, Gino."

Gino looked at her. They'd had conversations along these lines before, after they were certain no one was around to hear. They had agreed that Brittannia was in the wrong, but Gino always figured that once someone won the fighting would stop. "I know, Anya... I know." He admitted.

Lelouch was shocked. "You agree with me?" That was the last thing he had expected.

"Look, Lelouch... you shared your past with me, so I'll share mine with you. Maybe you'll get my reasoning when I finish." Gino said. He continued when he had Lelouch's attention. "When I was fourteen, I fell for my families' maid. But she was Japanese. I didn't care, she didn't care, and we were happy. And then my father found out." Lelouch frowned, having a feeling he knew where this was going.

"He was furious. He beat her to death." Gino grit his teeth, and clenched his hands tightly, the claws digging into his flesh. "He murdered her, and when the police found out? He got off with a slap on the wrist once they saw that she wasn't a Brittanian!" Gino was breathing heavily, now. He calmed himself. "And so I hated my country for a long while. Two years I went on living in their house, hearing about how I should act more like a noble. After that, I left and joined the military. And now I'm knight of three and I couldn't hate myself more." He was lying on his back now, having given up on sitting up.

"So yeah, that's my story. Honestly, Lelouch? The only thing I've got against you is that you did what I've wanted to all this time." Gino sighed.

Lelouch spoke in a solemn tone. "I'm sorry."

Gino gave a small smile. "Y'know... I think I'm glad you told me this. I've realized something about myself."

"What would that be?" Lelouch asked.

Gino sat up, a grin plastered on his face. "I'm too much of a rebel to be Knight of Three. I'm thinking, maybe I should seek alternative employment." His eyes shone. "Are the Black Knights hiring?"

Lelouch laughed, and Anya blinked. "For someone of your stature, arrangements can be made."

"What about me..?" Anya asked, quietly.

Lelouch looked to her, his gaze softening. "What do you think of all this, Anya?" He asked.

She reached up and began playing with her bangs. "I don't like what we're doing. I kept on every day for no reason. My life didn't have any reason. Brittannia gave me a reason to live, and so I jumped at it. I felt pathetic, but it was still better than living for nothing." She looked at him, teary eyed. "But now I remember, and I can do what I want. And I want to help you, Lulu."

Lelouch sat himself on the rock next to her, pulling her into a hug. "And you can, now. Don't worry, Anya. I understand how you felt. A life without reason isn't a life at all." It was a beautiful moment.

Leave it to Gino to both ruin it and make it better. "Group hug!" He yelled, scooping the unsuspecting duo into his arms. "I love you guys!" Gino shouted, crying crocodile tears.

"Damnit Gino, we were having a moment!" Anya shouted, a light pink tinge on her cheeks. Which, considering her current skin color, must have meant she was pretty embarassed.

"Hey, I'm not being crushed to death. Neat." Lelouch noted. The last time Gino had hugged him, it felt like he was being suffocated. Now it was just mildly uncomfortable.

It was then Lelouch noticed something. "Why the hell am I barefoot!" He shouted.

* * *

After the group hug had ended, Lelouch made sure to take a good look at himself in the water. It was murky, but his reflection was clear enough.

His hair had grown, reaching just under his shoulders. It had also turned white. His eyes were the same, thankfully, his skin was icy blue, and he had slightly clawed hands and feet. With purple nails.

It seemed he also had a strange tattoo of some sort on his face, which resembled a snowflake. It was centered on the bridge of his nose, and reached across his eyes. It was a dark purple.

His clothing was not too out there, considering the circumstances they found themselves in. He wore a simple grey robe, held together by an icy blue, rope-like belt. At his hip were a moderately sized pouch, and a sheath for a dagger. He found his weapon of choice, a simple dagger, and sheathed it. The blasted thing had been buried hilt deep in a tree.

After he finished inspecting himself, he turned to Gino and Anya. "The two of you find anything useful in our satchels?"

The three had "spawned" with a satchel each, filled with various items.

"Yeah. Seems each of us have three of these red potions." Gino pointed to the nine potions. "Since we're in a sort of game world, I'll assume these are the typical health potions. And the blue ones are mana. You're bag is the only one we found those in." He nodded towards the three vials of blue liquid.

"Aside from that, we found twenty of these gold pieces in each satchel. Once again, assuming they're the currency of this crazy world. We also got three maps, and three books. Each book has our individual classes named on them, so I figure these are important." He threw a black, leatherbound tome to Lelouch, who caught it. "If I had to guess, they'll teach us our various skills." Gino pointed, at last, to something even Lelouch recognized. "Finally, we got enough dried meat to last us a few weeks of good eating, and every explorers best buddy..." He held up a circular object. "The Compass!" You could hear the capitalization, seriously.

"Alright. So, first order of business is to find some sign of civilization. Anything nearby on the map?" Lelouch asked.

Anya held up the map, pointing to a picture of a tree. "Nearby, there is a town called Willowgreens."

Lelouch looked around for any landmarks to point out where they were right now, and spotted one. "Over there is a large formation of rocks, that's on the map. It's on the way to the town, so let's head towards it. We'll figure out the rest once we get there."

"It's called Lizard Rock." Anya pointed out. "Maybe we'll find some interesting animals?"

Lelouch shrugged. "Maybe we'll encounter man-eating plants." He said, and Anya giggled.

As they left the clearing, they didn't notice a pair of serpentine eyes watching from the foliage.

* * *

The group made their way to Lizard Rock in a few minutes, and they marveled at the sight. Not the rocks, no, but it seemed Anya was right.

Interesting animals indeed.

All around the area, they spotted long, serpent like lizards. They resembled the typical Chinese dragon, long body, four legs, and a longer tail. Some of them were roaming about the rock formations, crawling into caves, skittering about the rock face, and playing with the young. Some lazed about on their perches, soaking up sunlight. Their heads were snakelike, with some having hoods like a cobra, some having frills like a frilled lizard, and some having a few horns or other crests.

On all fours, they stood almost as tall as Lelouch's waist. Many of them, however, were longer than six feet. That was just the torso, the area in between it's sets of legs. The tail doubled the creatures length.

The creatures bodies had a three foot diameter at most, most of them falling in the two foot range. Their legs were powerful, the back legs being slightly longer than the front. They had three clawed feet.

The most interesting thing about them, in Lelouch's opinion, would be the range of colors they displayed. Some were red, some green, some brown, grey, black, purple, pink, yellow, orange. Their eyes also displayed massive variety of color.

Best of all they seemed friendly, if the small group watching them curiously were any indicator. One of the group crept out, a silvery grey one with a fanlike crest atop it's head, and wandered over to Anya.

It made an odd sound, Lelouch could swear it was trying to purr, and nuzzled Anya's leg with it's nose. Anya cooed, kneeling to pet it. "Ooooh, it's so cute..." She gushed, arms circling around the serpentine neck of the lizard. It seemed to enjoy the attention, if the strange purring noise it was making was any indication.

Upon closer inspection, this particular creature was a bit smaller than the others. On all fours, it came to Anya's waist. It was about ten feet long, from head to tail, and it's silvery scales seemed to sparkle. It's eyes were an interesting shade of pink. It displayed it's snakelike tongue when it flicked out, touching Anya's ear, which caused her to giggle, before returning to it's mouth.

"Hey, Anya, they like meeeeee!" Gino shouted, buried under a pile of the smaller creatures as they playfully wrestled with him. "Wahooo, I always said I was good with animals!"

"Interesting. It seems we're welcome here, for now." Lelouch muttered, leaning up against a rock as his comrades played with the local wildlife.

He pulled open his book, determined to accomplish something.

* * *

Novice Guide to Necromancy

_Greetings, novice. You have chosen the path of the Necromancer, may your foes ever fear you._

_You have a choice ahead of you, Novice. There are three paths of Necromancy, and you must choose two which you will specialize in. Yes, yes, I know it is unfair. Surely, we would all like to master all three of the paths, however it is simply not possible for some reason. Only one Necromancer has ever survived the attempt, and that is Grandmaster Cayn._

_Back to your choice. Listed below is information on the three paths, listed in a format that will surely help you make your choice. I will attempt to keep my own preferences out of the text, and help you make an unbiased decision. Make note, dear Novice, this tome is magical in nature. once you have chosen your specialties, the beginner level spells and techniques will be imparted onto you as though you had trained in them for a week. Sadly, this can only be done due to their simplicity, and my own enchanting prowess._

_**Necromancy: Simple as it sounds, Necromancy is the use of our dark magic to call forth that which has long since been lost; the bodies and bones of the dearly departed. If this is chosen as your specialty, you will gain an innate ability to sense whether or not anything has died nearby, that you can reanimate.**_

_Novice Spells include:_

_ Reanimate: Calls up the bones and flesh of a deceased creature. This is the cornerstone of the Necromancy spell path, you will ALWAYS use it. Always. The only thing that will change is what you reanimate, and how powerful you can make it through your other spells. The mana cost rises along with the complexity of your target. A powerful Necromancer can use this spell to resurrect his fallen allies with no consequence to himself or them._

_Dark Infusion: A simple spell that pumps dark energy into your reanimated minion. The energy can mend their injuries, or simply give them more power. Some creatures can tap into their own latent abilities if enough Dark Energy is infused to them._

_**Skeletal Manipulation: Once more, as it sounds. Skeletal Manipulation turns the bones of you or anything infused with your magical energy into deadly weapons. You could harden your bones, sharpen them, launch them from your body, create weaponry for yourself and your allies, and soforth. You will gain an innate increase to your skeletal system's firmness upon accepting this path.**_

_Novice Spells include:_

_Pike of Bone: Sharpening and hardening of the ulna bone into a spear. Through means of dark magic, the pike can be any length between one foot and six. Six is the limit, no one is certain why. Many a necromancer has used this spell differently than the other guy. Some use it to produce weaponry for themselves and their allies, others launch as many of them into the air as possible, still others use them for stealthy kills, and some even use it to contain things they have captured for various reasons._

_Skeletal Fortitude: Imbue yourself with dark energy, strengthening your bones. This can be done either to increase the effectiveness of another spell, or simply to take a hit that would be painful otherwise. Use of this spell on a broken bone will mend it._

_**Dark Arts: Dark magic in it's purest form is a substance that is everchanging. It changes with the will of he who controls it. If you wish to harm someone with dark energy, then you can. However, you can also help people with this energy. The power of dark magic can increase the strength of the necromancer and his allies to amazing proportions.**  
_

_Novice Spells include:_

_Banshee Wail: A shriek laced with dark energy, causes weakness in the bones of enemies, making them easier to kill. Often known to disorient foes. However, this spell can be used on an ally, and it will strengthen their own bones, making their attacks hit harder, and those of their foes less effective. Use of the skill in the midst of an enormous battle, surrounded by friend and foe, the dark magic will recognize friend from foe, and react accordingly._

_Bloodboil Bolt: A simple bolt of dark energy, when it strikes an enemy with blood running in it's veins, it will heat the blood. After a few applications of blood bolt, a foe will be in excruciating pain as it's blood boils it from the inside out. And yet, a less dastardly use of this spell, is to heat the blood of an ally or yourself when they would otherwise be freezing to death. Situational, yes, but still useful._

* * *

Lelouch made his choice. "Necromancy and Skeletal Manipulation are my choices." He said to himself, wondering how to activate the book.

And then suddenly he understood. He knew how to saturate the world around him with his mana, use it to find a corpse, force it into the corpse, and then bind the newly animated creature to his will.

He knew how to further infuse the creature with dark energy, in order to increase it's power proportionately to the amount of dark energy used.

He knew how to fortify his ulna bone with dark energy, propel it from his palm by using that same energy, and how to lengthen and regenerate the bone once he needed to.

And finally, he knew how to safely infuse himself with dark energy, strengthening and mending his bones.

He knew it all as though he had been learning from a master for four weeks, a week for each skill. It was absolutely astounding just how powerful it made him feel.

And then it was gone. The understanding remained, but the sudden feeling of power had left. These were novice spells. Novice. Out in the world, there were spells that made these look like nothing. And he was going to learn them.

The thought made him smile.

And then he looked up from his book, and spotted another of the lizard creatures. This one had black scales, three shark fin looking crests on it's head, and purple eyes. And it was less then a foot from his face.

"... Yes?" He asked, not expecting a reply.

_"Elf. I am known as Shroudscale. I come to confirm that your party mean no harm to my brethren?" _The creature spoke.

Lelouch, while suprised, kept his composure. "Yes. We mean no harm, we are simply passing through to reach a nearby town."

The creature nodded. _"__Then you are deemed a friend to the Kirish."_

"Kirish? Is this the name of your species, or this specific group?" Lelouch asked._  
_

_"Kirish speaks of all of our race. Since you have arrived here, the scent of this place has slowly rubbed off on you. Any other Kirish will recognize you as friend by the scent." _Shroudscale explained.

"I see. I thank you for allowing us this honor." He replied.

Both Lelouch and Shroudscale turned as they heard a terrified scream. "Anya!" Lelouch shouted, rushing to his feet. He quickly darted off towards her yell, Shroudscale following close behind.

The scene he came upon caused him to run even faster. Some sort of bipedal lizard with large teeth and claws was currently attacking Anya, who had been caught of guard and hurt. A large portion of her shirt was missing, revealing much of her charcoal skin, and a gash along her side. While it wasn't deep, she looked to be in a good deal of pain, as shown by her teary eyes and painful grimace.

The Lizardman was about to jump at Anya again, and Lelouch was pushing himself to run as fast as he could. But he was too late, the beast lunged at Anya, prepared to kill her...

Only for the silver scaled Kirish to rush into it with such force that the lizard was launched several feet away, despite it's MUCH larger size. The Kirish growled viciously at the Lizardman.

_"Interesting. He does not normally take so well to outsiders... to protect one from the savages is unusual." _Shroudscale hissed, easily keeping pace with the still sprinting Lelouch.

"I must thank him. Anya is a dear friend of mine, to lose her to this creature would tear at my heart until the end of my days." Lelouch replied, breathing barely labored. While he was moving as fast as he could, he was not running out of energy as quickly as he would have before. Which was good.

The Lizardman came to just in time for Lelouch to place himself inbetween the beast and Anya. Her protector sat beside her, coiling loosely, but protectively, around the girl.

Lelouch held out a hand, dark energy gathering within it. Soon, an orb of darkness shot into the ground, and a skeletal Kirish appeared. It was twelve feet long, and had no sort of crest on it's head. However, something interesting could be seen on it's tail; the bone protruded much like a scythe, and the edge was sharpened like one too. Though, the sharpening was due to Lelouch's magic.

_"I rise to serve you, mi'lord." _The risen Kirish intoned.

_"Sickletail. He was lost during an attack by the savages, it is most ironic that you reanimate him to defeat another of their kin." _Shroudscale spoke.

_"It is truth. I wish nothing more than to defeat this most vile of creature." _Sickletail agreed, showing that the spell allowed the reanimated to retain their sentience. _"And now, it seems my namesake has become more like that which it resembles. I will slice this savage to pieces."_

The Lizardman had stayed it's attack to observe, but it soon forwent that and dashed forward, aiming to bypass the Necromancer and Kirish entirely, and attack it's already injured prey. It leapt over Lelouch and the Kirish, landing less than three feet behind them.

Well within the range of Sickletail's namesake. The tail swiftly lashed out, digging into the lizardman's side. It roared in pain, attempting to move forward further. This plan was halted as Sickletail used his tail to pull himself towards the beast, coiling tightly around it. Lelouch raised a hand once more, this time a dark stream of energy channeled into the undead Kirish. The pure white bones darkened to an inky purplish black, and the serpentine creature coiled more and more tightly around the Lizardman, cracking it's bones. It roared in pain, and Lelouch knew just how to shut it up.

He lifted his other arm, the one not feeding the Kirish dark energy. "Pike of Bone." He intoned.

The ulna bone shot from his palm like a rocket, tearing through the lizardman's skull and splattering it's miniscule brains everywhere. Sickletail uncoiled from it, and the dark energy receded.

_"Necromancer, I give you my express permission to call upon whenever you are in need. I, Sickletail, pledge my undeath to you." _The Kirish then dissipated into dust, which flowed into the pouch at Lelouch's side.

Lelouch rushed over to Anya, kneeling at the girl's side. "Anya, are you alright?" Lelouch asked, a bit frantic.

"Uhg... Lulu, it hurts. It BURNS..." Anya sobbed.

_"The savages often apply poison to their claws, it is perhaps the most advanced thing they are able to do..." _Shroudscale hissed.

"Oi, lemme help. I can fix it right up." Gino called, jumping from a rock several feet above the assemblage.

"Right." Lelouch said, moving back. His eyes stayed on the girl the entire time, however.

'He really is concerned about losing her. So much for Zero treating those under him like pawns.' Gino thought to himself, readying the healing spell he had learned. Novice level or not, an injury like this would be easy to deal with, so long as he could keep pushing mana into it.

"Grace of Light." Gino whispered, concentrating. His hand hovered over the gash, and a white light poured from his hand onto the girl's skin. The wound steamed for a moment, and Gino instinctively knew that symbolized the poison fading. The wound began to close itself soon after.

When he was done, Gino fell back onto his posterior with an exaggerated "Phew!"

Anya sat up and stretched, the healing having down wonders for her. "I feel great." She exclaimed. And then she noticed something else. "Oh... uhm... m-my shirt..."

Her shirt had been torn just enough that anyone who looked would see her still developing breast, and her flat stomach. She turned red, crossing her arms before anyone actually stopped and looked.

Gino and Lelouch blushed, looking away. "Uh... Here..." Lelouch used his dagger to cut the top half of the robe from the bottom, passing the top to Anya. "I'm more resistant to cold..." Lelouch joked.

Anya accepted the robe, quickly pulling it on. She turned to thank him, only to realize that Lelouch was now topless. She stared for a moment, making Lelouch uncomfortable, before she mumbled "Thank you..." And then she promptly looked away, cheeks flushed. The silver Kirish from before coiled itself around Anya loosely, holding something in it's mouth.

"The book?" She muttered, taking the offered item. After a few minutes of reading it, Anya closed the book. "Gunnery and Beast Mastery." She muttered.

Much like the two before her, Anya now understood concepts that she had no knowledge of beforehand. Such as the fact that the Kirish coiled around her was bound to her through it's actions. She and this creature were now partners. She also knew various spots on every creature nearby that could be shot to kill almost instantly.

As a gunner and beast master, many of her abilities would be passive techniques and knowledge. How she used them would determine their effectiveness. Actively, however, she could empower her chosen pet, and empower her bullets, to various ends.

"Lulu? Could you get my gun, please?" She asked, sweetly.

Lelouch gave her a look, before wandering off to get afformentioned weapon from where it had been dropped. Once he was out of sight, Anya looked at Gino.

"Stop laughing over there, Gino. Just because he's ignorant about these things doesn't mean you need to make things worse." She muttered, arms crossed.

"But Anya, it's just so cute to see you blushing over him like that! And the fact that he's clueless just makes me laugh!" He accentuated this fact by laughing.

"S-shut up, Gino!" Anya pouted, with a blush. "How can he be so smart, and so stupid at the same time?" She asked.

Gino's smirk widened. Anya frowned. "Why are you smirking?" She asked, a bit nervous.

"Because I came back just in time to hear someone calling me stupid." Lelouch answered humorously.

"Ah! Lulu!" Anya yelped, trying to hide her blush.

"Now, just what were you two talking about, anyway?" Lelouch asked.

"NOTHING!" Anya yelled frantically.

* * *

They had opted to stay the night in Lizard Rock, since they were not keen on traveling after dark. it was now morning, and Lelouch woke up ready to greet the day. Now if only there wasn't a weight on his chest making it hard to move.

A quick look down showed that Anya was using him as a bed. The only part of Anya touching the ground was her legs, which were situated between his own. 'Seriously? She's doing it intentionally now.' He grumbled in his head.

Gino, who was always an early riser, was giving him a mocking wave. "Morning Lelouch."

"Good morning, Gino." Lelouch replied. He sighed, reaching up to shake Anya awake. He idly noticed the Kirish less than three feet away, coiled up like a snake. He didn't think that one had a name, so he figured Anya would come up with something. "Anya, wake up." He said, gently shaking her shoulder.

Her eyes opened up, slowly, and it was clear she was still half-asleep. "I love waking up like this." She murmured, nuzzling her cheek against him. Which was rather embarassing for him, considering he was shirtless. Gino noted that his blush was blue, rather than red.

After the trio had gotten themselves ready, and eaten a ration of the dried meat, they prepared to leave. The Kirish Anya had befriended would be coming with them.

Shroudscale was there to see them off. _"Know this, you are always welcome with us. The Kirish are your allies until further notice, my friends."_

The group set off towards Willowgreens, Anya patting the Kirish on it's head. "From what that book said, I should be able to make you do interesting things if I give you some of my power..." She concentrated, sending some of the afformentioned power into the Kirish. It hissed, pleased with the sudden rush of strength, and opened it's maw wide, revealing several sharp teeth. The real attention drawer would be the blackish red glow coming from it's throat.

'No way.' Lelouch thought, even as the Kirish fired a blackish red beam of energy from it's throat. And then it burped jovially.

"... I'm calling you Hadron." Anya decided, watching the destruction caused by the beam. It had torn up two trees, and utterly decimated the other plantlife in the area it hit.

Lelouch sighed. "Seriously? Somehow, you managed to get a pet with a miniature hadron cannon? H-... wait. I wonder if the Sickletail can do that..."

And so the group carried on their merry way to Willowgreens.

* * *

Yep. I redid that fic idea I tried some time ago, with a different direction. Credit to Kyugan for the idea, I recommend his fics, highly.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two, I don't own Code Geass, blabla bla... and bla.

* * *

He woke up to someone gently shaking his shoulder. His reaction was to roll away quickly, landing in a crouch, as he stared hard at his assailant.

What he saw shocked and frightened him. Before him was a hoofed creature, covered almost entirely in a dark teal fur. Beneath the fur, and on it's un-furred chest, he could see muscle that would leave many athletes jealous. It wasn't the body-builder type of muscle, it was more compact. But he could tell it would be just as effective.

The creature was garbed in loose chain garments. Loose, linked chains hung over it's, or rather his, as the creature was surely male, legs. Upon his chest was a sleeveless chain vest, and over his back a large axe was slung via a leather harness. He wore chain gauntlets aswell.

His head was humanoid, with two goatlike crescent horns curving towards it's head. The eyes were yellow, with slit pupils. Along with it's fur, the creature seemed to have long teal hair, falling to his back. Suddenly, he spoke. "Rolo, calm down. It's Rivalz."

"R-Rivalz!" Rolo quickly adopted his act, despite his confusion. "What happened?" He asked, looking himself over.

While he had not changed physically, his attire was far different. He now wore a leather cuirass of some sort, with a single leather pauldron on his left side. His pants were simple padded leather pants, with equally simple boots. At his waist were twin sheaths, meant for twin daggers. He soon found the knives, and placed them into their sheaths, as Rivalz explained what he thought was going on.

"Well, it seems we've been pulled into that board game we were playing. It's farfetched, but it's all I've got at the moment." Rivalz said.

The satyr reviewed his thoughts, trying to get them in order. 'Alright. So we're in a board game, I remember things that the Emperor forced me to forget, including who Zero is. Must remember to thank the theatrical nature of the royal family for that little tidbit.'

Yes, when he and the rest of the council, save Nina, Kallen, Suzaku, and Lelouch, had been brainwashed, the Emperor had seen fit to tell them why, seemingly not thinking that his Geass spell could ever be broken. Whoops for him.

He looked over the area they found themselves in. Grassy plains stretched out to their right, and they were beside a large forest. A river ran into the woods, the land around it rocky as opposed to the soft grass and dirt. He could swear he heard a waterfall nearby.

'I also remember that Lelouch did not have a little brother. Which poses the question, who is Rolo?' Rivalz frowned, as the cherubic boy inspected his dagger. He looked over them with a sort of professionalism that Rivalz recognized due to his own minor weapons fixation. The boy was used to this type of weapon.

He sighed. And a scream caught his and Rolo's attention. "Aw hell, that sounded like Nina." Rivalz ran off towards the source, Rolo close behind.

During the short dash into the woods, Rolo pondered over the situation. 'How did this happen? Wait.. I remember the Geass crest appeared, and brother yelling... The name of the boardgame was similar to Geass. Brother and I didn't even think about that at the time... So, some sort of artifact involved in Geass transported us to this world. How do we get out, then?' As his thoughts finished up, the two boys spotted Nina, dressed differently aswell, pressed up against a tree by some sort of wolf man.

The beast stood just over Rivalz' height, had dark grey fur, bordering black, and extremely sharp claws. It wore no clothing, revealing an unpleasant sight for Rolo and Rivalz as they spotted the creatures genitals, it's fur was matted down with dried blood, and it had a noticeable scar over it's left eye.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the beast had not already eaten Nina. It's body was pressed forcefully against her, pressing her up against the tree in a painful hold. Her feet weren't touching the ground, and only the pressure from the creature assaulting her was keeping her held up.

Rivalz swiftly ended this, slamming himself into the wolf man. The creature flew several feet, dropping Nina onto her rear. The boy pulled his axe from his back, clumsily, and held it infront of himself. "Rolo! Grab Nina and get the hell out of here!" Rivalz yelled, as the wolf righted itself.

It growled furiously, dropping to all fours and preparing to rush at him-

Only to stop dead as Rolo was suddenly on it's back, both daggers buried hilt deep in it's skull. The boy's eyes widened, and he suddenly fell forward. He rolled off of the dead werewolf, landing on his back. He was breathing heavily, and looked worse for the wear. "What... but. It isn't... too soon. How..." Rolo muttered, breathlessly, before he was out cold.

"What the hell was that!" Rivalz yelled. The boy had just killed something in cold blood, and it looked as though it came easily to him. And then he falls off it's back, and faints? How did he even get onto the thing anyway? It was a good twenty feet from Nina and him, and Rolo had been even further than that!

He sighed, turning to regard Nina. "Are you alright?" He asked.

The girl was giving him a wide eyed stare. "Rivalz?" She asked, fearfully.

He shrugged, looking her over. She was garbed in a simple brown cloth skirt, a pair of loose-legged pants of a lighter shade, and a white shirt. Her nails were sharper, two fangs poked out from her upper lip, her pupils were slits, and her skin had taken a very slight green tint. Her hair was as it normally was.

Nearby, Rivalz spotted a flute. He picked it up, with a nod. "Yeah. Seems we've been sucked into the game or something, Nina. And Rolo is down for the count." He passed her the flute.

Nina looked at the boy lying on the ground, nervously. "Who is that boy, anyway?" She asked. "He was acting like Lelouch's brother, but..."

"Lelouch doesn't have a brother. I know." Rivalz cut her off. "Last year, after the Black Rebellion, Shirley, Milly, and I were taken before the Emperor. And he rewrote our memories, so that we wouldn't remember Lelouch having a little sister instead of Rolo. Or that Nunnally once attended Ashford." He knew that he probably shouldn't tell her this next part, but he figured she deserved to know.

"Nina... Lelouch was, no, he IS Zero." Rivalz cringed as Nina adopted a look of shock and hurt. "The Emperor told us right before he messed up our memories. Lelouch's memories were also changed, obviously. But, if he didn't remember before, I'm certain that he does now."

"He... he killed Princess Euphemia... Lelouch killed Princess Euphemia..." Nina began sobbing, as it seemed her world was crashing around her. Lelouch, one of her oldest friends, was the killer of her idol? How could the vice president of the student council do something so terrible? How could one of her friends do something like that, kill someone as heroic and wonderful as Euphemia?

As this happened, Rolo had regained consciousness in time to catch the conversation. 'This is bad. They have their memories back? I need to eliminate them...' But then he remembered something his brother had told him, back when he first agreed to help him.

* * *

_"Brother? Why don't you simply give up your persona as Lelouch Lamperouge entirely? Would it not be easier to act then, even if it would alert the empire to your remembrance?" Rolo asked his brother, as they sat in the hidden control room. Villetta was seated nearby aswell, looking over the monitors._

_Lelouch looked at him for a moment, before sighing. "I'll be honest, Rolo. I have two reasons for staying. The first is that the Emperor has Nunnally, and will use her as a bargaining chip the moment he realizes I've regained my memories. I cannot allow her to be used like that, because..." He sighed again, grimacing. "Should the Emperor threaten Nunnally, I would be forced to bow to his whims. Should she die..." He shivered, the thought causing bile to rise in his throat. "I would not be able to go on. Everything I've done to this point has been for her."_

_Rolo frowned. "So, she is to you, what you are to me, Big Brother?" He asked. He didn't like the thought of his big brother's attention being on someone else. He had been some nameless pawn for so long, to have any care spared for him at all was new. If his brother cared for someone else like he did for him, then what would happen when they were reunited? Would he be tossed aside?_

_Lelouch's mind was working quickly, unbeknownst to Rolo. He smiled. "Yes. And I hope once we're ALL together, you'll come to see her in a similar light to me. After all, we're all going to be family, right Little Brother?"_

_The thought actually shocked Rolo speechless. Of course! How could he have been so foolish. His Brother's sister, of course that would make her HIS sister aswell! While he loved his big brother, he would be lying if he said having more family wouldn't make him happy. Lelouch, his big brother. And Nunnally, his little sister. HE would be able to be a big brother aswell! The thought brought emotions to his chest. He felt postively giddy, but he restrained himself. "Of course, Big Brother!" He exclaimed._

_"And the second reason I stay... is because of the council. My friends." Lelouch continued. "While they aren't as important to me as Nunnally, I still care very much for all of them. They're my friends. And they are your friends too, Rolo. You should always try to protect your friends, and know that they would do the same for you."_

_Friends? Rolo hadn't even given much thought to that. He had family, so why couldn't he also have friends? Friends, they weren't as important as family, but the thought of having two groups of people who cared for him, friends and family, it was exciting. How could he not have realized this on his own? It felt so wonderful to realize that people CARED for him, so how had he not realized just how empty he was before?_

_The answer stared him in the face. V.V., his "master", had crippled him emotionally. Turned him into a weapon. Denied him the right to be happy, so that he would have his perfect little assasin to call upon at the drop of a hat._

_"Big Brother, I think I understand now." Rolo said at last, smiling._

_Lelouch smiled back at him. "That's good, Little Brother. I wanted you to know just how important bonds are."_

* * *

These were Lelouch's friends. People who cared about him. Rolo had been uncared for before, and once he realized just how many people cared about him, it felt wonderful. Was he really willing to take people like that from his big brother?

No. He wasn't. If worse came to worse, he would bring them to Lelouch and let him use his Geass to make them forget, but until then Rolo would not act. He couldn't take away his brother's precious people, as Rolo had begun to call them.

"Rivalz." Rolo called, standing up.

"Eh, yeah Rolo?" Rivalz replied.

"You remember everything, right? That big brother and I aren't related by blood? That he's Zero?" Rolo asked.

Rivalz made a nervous noise. "Uh, yeah. I remember. So... who are you, actually?"

Rolo decided to come clean. After all, if Rivalz needed to forget, then Lelouch could make it happen. "It's a long story. We should get our bearings first, though. Once we're settled, I'll explain everything."

Rivalz nodded, moving over to the still sobbing Nina. "Nina, can you walk? If not, I'll carry you, but we need to get to a safer place."

Nina sniffled, before standing. Her eyes were red, and she looked a mess, but it would have to do.

"First plan of business is to find some sort of settlement." Rolo muttered.

"Well, the satchels we showed up here with might have something useful." Rivalz suggested.

A quick look through them showed results. "A compass and map. I can get us to the nearest town now. Seems there is one deeper in the woods. It's home of the Beastfolk, the race Nina chose. Primaltus is the name." Rolo pointed off to the east. "There should be a road east that will take us to Primaltus, where we can settle down safely. Shall we?" He set off, Rivalz and Nina close behind. The girl had stopped crying, but looked ready to start at the drop of a hat.

They all had things to think about.

* * *

A furious cry echoed throughout the battlefield, as a man clad in platemail cut through another skeleton. More and more rose from the ground, an unending plague, and still the warrior fought on. Two swords were held in his hands, and he brought them around at speeds that would leave lesser men in shock.

Suzaku Kururugi was in a state of rage.

His eyes glowed a brilliant green, and wisps of light blue energy snaked out of his mouth as he breathed. His brunette hair was matted to his face by his own sweat, but he didn't care.

His armor was pristine, he had yet to be harmed. His enemies did not bleed, and he had not been forced to bleed yet. He was garbed in a breastplate of iron, wore gauntlets of the same, and finished with more iron in the form of his leggings and boots. His twin blades remained firm, slicing through the fragile bones and decrepit armor of his foes. A blade found it's way to his arm, breaking against his gauntlet. His own blade found purchase in the dark creatures skull, bursting it into fragments.

All around him, the skeletons rose from the ground, seemingly endless. The once lively forest had died, replaced by broken husks of trees that had no leaves, their trunks withered so that they were thinner than Suzaku himself. And yet the boy was unaware of this, so blinded by his anger.

"LELOUCH!" He screamed, bringing his twin blades down upon the skulls of two skeletons at once, slicing through their skulls. He swung around, blades held parallel to one another, and the twin blades sliced through another trio of the undead.

He continued on for what seemed like hours. In reality, the battle had lasted ten minutes. The conclusion left Suzaku standing amongst a pile of re-killed skeletons that went in every direction several yards. He had single handedly killed upwards of fifty skeletons.

With the skill he had taken from his own world.

This was how he was found, by a patrol of glowy eyed humans with alabaster skin, much like his own. The apparant leader, one garbed in silvery armor with a pristine white hooded cloak, shouted in shock and awe. "By Daranious, the child has defeated an entire battalion of skeletons! Boy, might I inquire you name?" He spoke in a deep, authoritive voice. While he had phrased it as a question, something told Suzaku it was anything but.

"I am Suzaku Kururugi. I woke in this place with no recollection of how I arrived, and was set upon by these skeletons." He growled. "I killed them all."

The man in the white cloak laughed uproariously. "Tell me, boy, did you find it satisfying to demolish the forces of the undead? Have you trained in the arts of the Paladin? Or perhaps the Warrior is you calling?" He muttered the last part, as though he found it... distasteful.

Suzaku regarded him for a moment. "I wish to be a Paladin, but have no training in the arts." He replied.

The cloaked man pulled down his hood, revealing alabaster skin and glowing blue eyes. "I am Tyronous of the Templar Order. We are the largest gathering of Paladins in existance. Come with me to our city, and we shall teach you all you wish to learn! You can become great, your potential already surpasses many!" Tyronous seemed genuinely excited.

"I will accept your generous offer, on one condition." Suzaku offered, catching the man's attention. "Out in the world, there is a Snow Elf Necromancer by the name of Lelouch Lamperouge. This man has wronged me greatly, and committed sins upon sins. I wish to use the training I am given to kill this man and rid the world of his evil. Will this be an issue?"

He saw Tyronous smirk, maliciously. "No. To use the Holy teachings to rid our world of a sinner such as this will bring naught but glory. We will grant you our express help to search for this man, should your name earn as much sway as I predict it will."

"Very well. I accept your offer, graciously." Suzaku pledged, falling into line with the other soldiers. Soon, the collection of Paladins marched off, heading towards a large mountain.

Daronio, City of Daronious, home of the Ascended, and main locale of the Templar Order.

'Lelouch, for the crimes you have commited, you will die. I don't care if I can even kill you in this world, but I swear I will try! You will PAY!' Suzaku's thoughts carried on along these lines, sinking deeper into his rage.

* * *

"Hnnn..." Shirley groaned, nuzzling her cheek up against the soft pillows she was laying against.

She would soon realize just how bad an idea this was.

"Ooooh, Shirley, you naughty girl you! That feels nice~." Milly's voice broke the girl out of her stupor, sending her into a roll as she realized just where she had been lying her head.

It seemed like whoever dropped them there had a twisted sense of humor. They had landed in a very compromising position, with Shirley ontop of Milly with her head pressed up against the blonde's breasts. Before waking up, Milly's arms had been loosely encircled around the girl, bringing her head closer to her busom.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT!" Shirley yelled, hiding her mortified face with her hands.

It was as Shirley did this that Milly's expression turned from coy, to worried. "S-Shirley? You remember, don't you?"

"Remember what, Mi-!" She stopped mid sentence, memories flashing before her eyes.

* * *

_ A girl stood in the rain, late in the night, head hanging low. Her orange hair was matted to her face, and her dress was utterly soaked. She simply stood, like a statue. She was waiting on someone who was over half an hour late, but that was not the cause for her detached misery._

_"Shirley!" A boy called, spotting her. He quickly ran over, sheltering her from the rain with his umbrella. "I told you to go on ahead, I'd catch up. Why are you standing in the rain like this? You'll get sick."_

_"Lulu..." Shirley raised her head, looking him in the eyes. He gasped, as tears flowed freely from the emerald orbs. "My father... he's dead."_

_"W-what? How?" Lelouch asked, shocked. The last he had heard, the man was perfectly healthy. How could he have died?_

_"Narita. The landslide." She intoned._

_Lelouch recoiled, as if struck. "N-Narita? That means..."_

_"Lulu... Zero killed my father."_

* * *

_Once more, it was night, and Shirley was out and about. This time she was searching for Lelouch, out near the docks. "Surely Lulu isn't involved with the Black Knights... it has to be a mistake..." She muttered, hands clasping nervously before her._

_Soon she spotted something. A Burai with an elaborate headpiece. It lay on it's side, it's hatch open enough to show it's pilot, half hanging out of the machine itself. He wore a dark suit, with golden trim and red cuffs, and on his head was a mask that was slipping away, slowly but surely. It seemed that during whatever impact had occured, a simple handgun had been knocked loose from the man, and it rolled out several feet from Shirley. She picked the gun up, leveling it on the man who had taken her precious father from her. She shivered, hands shaking as she struggled, trying to pull the trigger..._

_Only for her resolve to break, seeing the mask fall. Seeing the dark hair and fair skin of the man, no, boy... Her Lulu. He was Zero._

_Lelouch... was Zero._

* * *

_Sunset, and Shirley stood in the arms of Lelouch, Zero, the man who she adored, the man who killed her father, the man who had saved her from this madman, the man who had prevented her from killing them both... Her thoughts were jumbled as she cried hysterically into his chest. Her mind stopped as he gently lifted her chin, her teary emerald eyes looking into his own purple. "L-Lulu?" She sniffled, questioning._

_"Shirley... I'm sorry." Tears were pooling in his eyes, but they didn't fall. "I never meant for you to be involved... it was an accident... I'm sorry." He sighed, painfully. "Shirley." His left eye suddenly lit up into a birdlike crest, much like the one the madman had. She began struggling, fearful. "Forget about me. Forget everything about me."_

_"Lulu..." Her mind went blank._

* * *

_Later, that night, an orange haired girl stood, looking up at a monument built to those who had died at Narita._

_She turned, spotting a black haired boy. "Oh, hello. Are you here for someone, too?" She asked._

_He smiled sadly. "You could say that. She was very close to me."_

_She gave him a small smile of her own. "I see. I'm sorry for your loss."_

_He waved it off. "Don't be. She would want me to carry on. I'll miss her, but I can't stop moving forward. Other people need me."_

_"I guess you're right. I'm Shirley Fenette, what's your name?"_

_"Lelouch Lamperouge."_

* * *

_She stood with two of her best friends, facing down the most terrifying thing they had ever seen. The Emperor of the Holy Empire of Britannia, Charles zi Britannia himself._

_"You, three of my wayward son's friends, will now be used to hold him captive. Your memories will be rewritten to suit my purposes, and Lelouch vi Britannia will never reclaim the title of Zero, which I have stripped from him alongside his own memories." He said no more, his eyes lighting up._

_Everything went black._

* * *

"Lulu... L-Lulu is Z-Zero... h-he killed father... he killed my father..." Shirley began sobbing. "Lulu killed my father..." She kept muttering, over and over again.

Milly sighed. "He told me he would fight Britannia, obliterate it. Establish it anew. I never thought he would do it... but he did. He almost liberated an area from Britannia. Something that no one else had done before, ever." She let a few of her own tears drop. "And it cost him every step of the way." Now it made sense, just why he had taken the death of Shirley's father so hard. He had caused it.

He had killed two of his siblings. One who he cared about almost as much as Nunnally. "It's all so surreal..." She muttered.

The two girls sat in silence for a long time, both thinking on the matter at hand.

Shirley broke the silence. "I... I forgive him." She said, shocking Milly.

"You forgive him? So quickly?" She asked, shocked.

"Y-yes. He told me that he hadn't meant t-to kill father... it was an accident. It was as much his fault as it was the military's for not evacuating when they knew there would be a battle. And even so... I knew before the Emperor told us. That Lulu was Zero, I mean."

Milly looked at her in shock. "When? How?"

"I followed him one night, to one of his operations. I found his knightmare on it's side, with him hanging out of the open cockpit. I took his gun, and almost s-shot h-him..." She calmed herself. "B-but, his mask fell off. I couldn't shoot Lulu... and so I shot the woman who had asked me to follow him. The woman was Villetta Nu."

"Coach Villetta! She was involved in this? You SHOT her?" Milly shouted, one shock after another finally getting to her.

"Y-Yes! And I'd do it again!" Shirley blurted out, before covering her mouth with her hands.

Milly sighed in understanding, shoulders sagging. "I understand. I would do the same."

"Really?" Shirley asked.

"Lelouch is my best friend. He was the first friend I ever made. I guess I love him too much to care what he's done." Milly smiled a bit.

"... When you say "love", please tell me you mean like a sibling?" Shirley attempted to lighten the mood.

Milly took the hint. "Maaaaaybe. I mean, he is so handsome. Those charming purple eyes of his, the pristine pale skin, and his girlish figure." Milly swooned. "Who wouldn't want a piece of that? Oh, I know! We can share him, maybe that will motivate him to work on his stamina!"

Shirley's blush had gotten brighter with every word. "M-Milly! Stop, just st-stop!" She covered her face to hide her blush.

And then Milly was upon her, tickling the girl until she begged for mercy.

* * *

"So... you give?" Milly asked, seated on Shirley's back. The orangette was panting, and red in the face. Her white robe had, thankfully, not been dirtied by the one-sided wrestling match. The robe itself was simple, with the shoulders being a royal purple color. She also wore a pair of simple leather shoes. Over by a nearby tree, as they were in a small forest clearing, lay a simple white staff. Milly noted that while Shirley was mostly unchanged, her ears were a bit pointier than normal.

Milly inspected her own attire, as Shirley continued to reorganize herself before speaking. She was garbed in a simple brown cloth shirt, with black cloth pants, and a pair of sandles. Milly had, also, remained mostly the same, save her pointed ears. Ears that were pointier than Shirley's.

"I-I... I give up, now get off, Milly!" Shirley shouted.

"Fine." Milly pouted, before moving to sit under a tree, rummaging around in the satchel she had spawned with. "Right. Red potions, blue potions, dried meat, book, map, and compass. Oh, and shiny money."

Shirley looked into her own pack and found the same things. "Right. So... umm. What should we do? We're in a forest. In a board game." She asked.

"Umm... well, you see, we'll probably have to finish the game. Problem is, the game mode is supposed to be determined by a card that we would draw after finding an item that let us draw it, during our adventures. The problem with this is, of course, that we don't know what item we need in order to draw said card. More likely than not, the goal of the game will be something that happens randomly in this crazy world." Milly shrugged. "Suppose the best we can do is go along with it for now."

Shirley gave her a look. "You're pretty nonchalant about this whole thing, Milly. Is this not a LITTLE bit concerning to you?"

Milly smirked. "What? You never wanted something like this to happen when you were little? Going to some mystical fantasy land, far far away from the troubles of our own world?"

Shirley sighed. "I dreamed about it, but I didn't think it would HAPPEN."

"Well it has, so get over it and let's check out this Windguard city. Oh, and we should probably read these books, too."

"Why? What makes you think they're important, Milly?" Shirley asked.

Milly gave her a look. "It's a large leatherbound book. Of course it's important."

Shirley laughed nervously. "R-right, sure. Um, so, let's go to the city and find a nice quiet place to read?"

"On it!" Milly yelled, quickly standing and grabbing her orange haired accomplish. "To the city we go!"

This can not possibly end well.

* * *

A teal haired man with orange eyes and pale skin stood atop a tall rock formation. Laid out before him was a large, swampy forest, stretching on all the way to a much smaller hill. While smaller than the one the man currently stood upon, it was still respectably large. An entire town had been built upon it, after all.

A sudden hissing sound was heard, as a creature lunged at the man.

"Spectral Sword." The man said, turning to cleave the beast in two. In his hands, he held a large two handed sword that seemed to be made of an orange, ethereal energy. He ran forward, slicing the lizard in half, moving quickly enough that his purple robe was not sullied by it's foul blood.

Upon his forehead, the mark of the Angels shone. This man was a half angel. The symbol itself was simple, it appeared to be a stylized bird in flight. But it was upside down.

Jeremiah Gottwald smiled in triumph. "It seems I am free to get the answers I seek. Lelouch..." He turned back towards the town, quickly dashing down the rockface. If he jogged, he would be at the town around noon.

'Soon, I will have my answers. And I will prove my loyalty.'

* * *

"Uh... my head." A young girl muttered, sitting up from her lying position. "What happened? Last I remember, I was talking with..."

"Me." Another voice cut in, drawing the attention of the girl. "It's really quite simple, Kaguya-chan. Zero went and found a powerful artifact on accident and stopped the flow of time in our world. So now, we're here to help him fix it. Sounds fun, right?" The owner of the voice was quite a sight.

Her skin was pale, and it gave her a sort of ethereal quality. Her long green hair fell to her mid back, flowing freely. She had a pair of golden eyes, with slit pupils. Her ears ended in points, which made Kaguya look closer at the woman's face.

Her canine teeth were sharp, nearly fangs. Upon her forehead was a symbol much like a bird in flight, a light pinkish red color. It looked like a tattoo of some sort.

Her attire was interesting, aswell. The woman was garbed in a pair of brown leather shorts, that ended just above her knees, with a loin cloth covering coming from the front and backs reaching down to just under her knees. Her chest was bound by a simple brown cloth top that bared her midriff. A hide cloak covered her otherwise bare shoulders, reaching to her tail bone. The cloak had two tribal masks adorning it's shoulders. At her hip was a large pouch, with a single straw-like item poking out. On the other side, however, a mask designed to look like some beast's skull was tied to her hip. The mask resembled a reptilian creature, with feathers atop it's head in a sort of crown.

Her weapon of choice appeared to be a pair of hand scythes, simple in design. The blades looked to be made of bone, rather than any metal Kaguya had ever seen. They were held in leather harnesses attached to C.C.'s otherwise bare legs.

"C.C.? Zero-sama found an artifact that stopped time? And now we're here? And why are you dressed like that?" Kaguya rapid fired questions. "Where is HERE anyway, it looks like a swamp!"

C.C. smirked. "In order; yes, yes, because I can be, and here is, in fact, a swamp. The Swampland, to be precise. Why don't you take a look at yourself, Kaguya-chan?" She said, prompting the girl to do just that.

What she saw suprised her. Her skin had taken on a greyish tone, and she noticed she had grown claws. Literal claws, she was sure she could hurt somebody with these things. She gave her outfit a quick look, and was pleased.

She wore a comfortable silky robe, colored a dark red. Along the collar were golden symbols of some sort, running down the front of the robe until they reached the waist, where they circled around. The robe was held together by a dark purple cloth belt, two long strands trailed behind her, reaching her knees. She had a dark leather satchel, much like C.C., and unlike the woman, she actually had a pair of shoes on. Simple leather shoes.

She couldn't see her face, much to her annoyance. Suddenly, C.C. passed her a mirror. Kaguya gave her a questioning look. "Where did you get a mirror?"

She smirked. "It's just a little bauble I picked up from my last trip."

Kaguya frowned, before looking at herself in the mirror. Her emerald eyes were a bit darker, her pupils slit, and she, too, had sharpened canine teeth. On her forehead were two small green dots, just over her eyes. All in all, it wasn't too bad.

She didn't know why she wasn't currently freaking out. C.C. probably had something to do with it, as calm as she was being about the whole situation.

"So... what do we do, C.C.?" She asked.

"We're going to find Zero and help him figure out how to get us out of this mess. Oh, by the way, Kaguya-chan. You're going to learn Zero's identity when we meet his group, so the sooner we find them the quicker that happens. They're probably heading for the nearest town, and I know where that is."

Kaguya was up instantly. "I get to see who Zero-sama really is! Yes! Oh I'm sure my husband will be delighted to see me." She giggled, but then she stopped. "Oh... C.C.? Do you think he'll like me if I look like... this?"

"Oh, don't worry Kaguya-chan. I've always pegged him as a lolicon."

* * *

Walking along with Gino, Anya, and Hadron, Lelouch suddenly sneezed.

"Geeze, Lelouch, someone talking about you?" Gino asked, grinning.

"Maybe he's getting sick... he is shirtless." Anya, still garbed in the upper half of his robe, said.

"I'm fine. But I suddenly feel like something bad is going to happen soon..." Lelouch muttered.

"Aw, it'll be fine. Look, there's the town!" Gino shouted upon seeing the town.

It seemed that whoever built Willowgreens had done so on a large uprising of rock, the steadiest ground around this place. A sound decision. The rock was upraised, and ramps had been carved out of the stone in order for travelers to get up.

Tall stone walls surrounded the town, giving the rock it sat on a taller appearance, since very few buildings actually stood above the wall.

Lelouch noticed something, however. "Seems something wanted in." He pointed to a portion of the rock covered in scratch marks, as if something had tried to climb it and failed.

"Yes..." Anya muttered, having a feeling she knew the culprit. "Do you think it was the lizard monsters?" She asked.

"Probably." Lelouch agreed.

Yes, things were going to go bad any day now. And Lelouch knew that his group would be RIGHT in the middle of it.

He hoped he was wrong.

* * *

Nina, Rolo, and Rivalz all sat in a moderately sized pub, in the booth furthest back.

"I told you I would explain, and now I will. Please hold any questions until the end." Rolo said, seriously.

The other two nodded, Nina looking a bit hesitant.

Rolo continued. "After the capture of Zero by Suzaku Kururugi, now Knight of Seven, I was appointed to watch over him as he lived out his life without his memories. And should he remember, I was to kill him." He allowed them to get take all this in, before continuing once he was sure they wouldn't interrupt. "This is not what happened. I had been chosen because I had been trained since a young age to be an assassin, and I had no emotions whatsoever. They assigned me because I would not be supportive of him. And yet, it backfired. I had been shown genuine affection and kindness by Lelouch, and while I was in the midst of my attempt to kill him, he saved my life. When I asked him why, he told me that it was because we were brothers. That even thought his memories had been taken from him, his actions were his own. And so I joined him in his endeavors from that point on."

Nina spoke first. "You don't care about all the people he has killed?" She asked, a bit vehemently.

"No. I've probably killed almost as many. And none of mine were accidents." Rolo's reply chilled her to the bone.

"Accidents?" Rivalz asked.

"Surely you don't think he set off a landslide at Narita expecting Shirley's father to die in it?" Rolo asked.

Rivalz nodded. "You're right." He admitted, after a moment.

"And what about Euphemia?" Nina asked, this time quietly.

"Her death was caused by my former master. He used a special device the order had been developing to cause brother's Geass to malfunction." Rolo elaborated, seeing their utterly confused stares.

"Geass is an ability that stems from two beings; C.C. and V.V., two immortal humans beings. Geass takes many forms, mine stops the perception of time for anyone caught in it." Their eyes widened in realization. "Yes, it is how I was able to kill the wolfman with none of our current skills. But brother's Geass is different. His allows him to give an order to anyone, and they must obey it. It can't be resisted."

"So, your master made Lelouch's Geass go haywire, and he accidentally made Euphemia go mad and start trying to kill all the Japanese?" Rivalz asked, incredulous.

"My former master is V.V., leader of the Geass Order. He has several trained Geass users around my age, the ability to endow a Geass Canceller upon people, and has extremely strong connections to Charles zi Britannia. While I do not know exactly what was said, I do know that V.V. forced brother's Geass to runaway at a specific point in time. I'll assume that whatever was said was along the lines of genocide, and so brother had to either let Euphemia carry on, or kill her." Rolo let that sink in

"So... this V.V. person forced Lelouch to kill Euphemia?" Nina asked, quietly. Almost hopeful. If Lelouch wasn't the one responsible, then her anger had been misplaced the entire time. She didn't want to hate one of her friends.

"Roughly speaking, yes. If we find brother, we can learn exactly what happened." Rolo said.

He was certain to leave out the fact that there was no such device as the one he described. Perhaps his big brother had been rubbing off on him? Either way, he was certain his big brother would be able to deal with the entire issue, once they met up with him.

And by the look in Nina's eyes, and Rivalz grin, he had a feeling they would be seeking him out.

Perfect, and he didn't even need to kill anyone to get his way.

* * *

And that is that. Very little Lelouch this chapter, but I needed to establish all of the players. And now, here comes a long AN, I'm sorry for it but there is information that you will probably want to know here.

It is a sort of rough draft of information for the story. Not much, just classes, races, and little things. It's information I occasionally look back at whilst writing the story.

Make note, all of it is subject to change at the drop of a hat, but I don't think it will any time soon. (Also, LOTS of line breaks in order to keep it slightly organized.)

* * *

Brief Overview of Geiis:

Geiis is a continent of it's own, the only continent in it's world, much like our Pangaea. Small island nations do exist, but they are not large enough to be continents of their own. Weather varies from place to place, and all types of climate are held on this continent.

Animals both mild and mythical inhabit Geiis, alongside civilized races such as Elves, Humans, Satyr, and so-forth. Many uncivilized races also exist, such as the brutish ogres, the primitive orcs, and destructive lizardfolk. Also among the realm of Geiis are both divine and infernal creatures, giving rise to their own civilizations. These two races live outside of the realm of Geiis, the infernal dwelling far, far below the surface, whereas the divine lounge about in the clouds, far beyond grasp.

Ancient tomes, hidden treasure, evil warlords, tyranical empires, artifacts of unimaginable power, all of these things and more exist within the land of Geiis.

Races:

* * *

Elves: Fair, fragile people, who specialize in stealth and magics. They dwell in the forest cities of Alearni and Oak-Seed. Their skin colors vary greatly, depending on their profession and the places they've been.

* * *

Subraces:

Snow Elves: These people are more hardy than their woodland cousins, due to their harsher living conditions. They still retain an almost ephermeal grace, however. Unlike the more humanlike skin color of their cousins from the forest, the snow elves have anywhere from an icy blue to pure white coloration. Eye colors vary, but purple and blue are more common than any. They dwell in the frozen mountains of Northmarch.

* * *

Dark Elves: An entire clan of elves was falsely imprisoned in a dark series of caves, with little to no interaction from the outside world. They survived through magical means, transmuting the hard ground into fertile farmland for what few plants did dwell beneath the surface, and hunting what few species of wild beast dwelled in their new home. They had been all-but forgotten, when an elven scholar stumbled upon the actual culprit of their crime. They were released post-haste, and formal apologies were given. The elves had changed during their long stay underground, however. Their skin was now the purest of black, their nails grown to fine claws. Their eyes had adapted to the pitch black, allowing them to see clearly. The eyes changed, the once various colors slowly bled to red. They have sought homes in Darkwood, and the Umbergrowth.

* * *

Satyr: These hoofed humanoids are covered in a light layer of fur, which leaves only the chest and face bare. Their strength is astounding, many able to perform feats that would leave even the most well trained humans looking on in awe. As such, they have made fine warriors. However, they also boast a great deal of Shaman and Witch Doctors. They make their homes in the great plains of Hahn, aswell as the rocky lands of Jaehl.

* * *

Human: Dwelling almost everywhere in the world of Geiis, the humans are both the easiest to understand and the most difficult. The stereotypes surrounding them are as numerous as the actual personalities within this race. There are no enemies to this race as a whole; only to certain clans, cities, and groups, unlike the Elves who distinctly despise the brutish ogres who have plagued their people for so long.

* * *

Subraces:

Beastfolk:

The beastfolk are a group of humans who tapped into the primal energies of Geiis, strong as it was in their home. This home, the Fields of the Ancients, was once the dwelling for an entire race of civilized beasts. The spirits of these creatures now merge with the humans, entering a sort of pact. This pact enables the human certain aspects of the animal who has merged with them, along with a powerful beast form the human may take on in times of need. Many of these Beastfolk choose the path of the hunter.

* * *

Fallen:

The Fallen are another group of humans, this time a group who fell under control of a demon lord, Baelrak, and were manipulated and twisted to his liking. The skin of the humans tanned, soon reaching a red color. Small horns sprouted from their foreheads, and tails grew from their spines. Their eyes all turned yellow, catlike. Soon, the humans were under his control completely. And yet, one remained pure of mind. This woman was powerful, eventually landing directly under the demon lord's command. It was from here that she killed him, setting her people free. Now, she leads the Fallen as their Empress Nelphan. The demonic corruption allows them to much more safely become Warlocks, and thusly they have capitalized upon it.

* * *

Ascended:

Chosen specifically by the deity Daranious to combat the evil of Baelrak, the Ascended were gifted with holy powers. Their skin paled to an alabaster white, and their eyes gained a slight glow to them. Changes to these humans were kept to a minimum, physically. However, they lost the ability to use the darker magics completely. No more necromancy, or demonology was to be performed by their hand. In exchange, the holier abilities came much easier to them. Paladins and Priests make up the fighting force of the Ascended almost entirely.

* * *

Half-Breeds:

Amongst the pure-bred races, the occasional half-breed appears. Among Humans and Elves it is normal, and even Satyrs are known to produce them from time to time. And yet, still others exist. Half-orcs, coming from less than savory conditions in most cases, half-angels, half-demons, and all other types of creatures exist.

Half-orcs: Often sired during the pillaging of villages, half-orcs are green skinned, muscular, and usually not extremely bright.

Half-Demons: Half-demons are constantly given mistrustful stares, though they are free to walk amongst the "pure". Their features vary as much as the type of demon the sired or birthed them. Demons are peculiar creatures in that not all are diabolical, scheming cretins hellbent on destruction or conquest. Some merely seek to live out their lives, while amusing themselves by causing a bit of chaos, and as such there are situations in which a demon and one of the other races willingly lay together, often resulting in a half-breed.

Half-angels: A half-angel is often the polar opposite of a half-demon. They are commonly loved by all that they meet, in civilized places that is, and yet at the same time the circumstances of their birth can be just as unsavory as that of a half-orc or half-demon. Some angels are not as righteous as they seem, and may force themselves upon unwilling men and women. However, these cases are an exception, not the rule.

* * *

Choose a class, and two trees from the class.

Classes:

* * *

Necromancer: Caster

Trees:

Necromancy: Summoning and controlling the dead. Focus on buffing pets.

Skeletal Manipulation: Using one's own skeletal system as a weapon. Focus on survivability.

Dark Arts: Use of Shadow magics for various affects. Focus on buffing and damage.

Necromancers are looked down upon by society for raising the dead to do their bidding, and yet they are often deemed a necessary evil by all but the Ascended. They have a history of being villains and anti-heroes, and yet some arise who simply wish for a better world, and use their abilities to that end. Many, however, simply wish to live their lives and study their practice.

* * *

Priest: Caster

Trees:

Holy Arts: Use of divine magic to heal and buff. Focus on healing.

Retribution: Use of divine magic to harm. Focus on buffing self, followed by powerful spells.

Obelisk: Summoning of various obelisks which buff, heal, shield, and damage. Focus on utility.

More often then not, if someone is injured in any civilized place, someone will call for a priest. They mostly make up the medical force of Geiis. That is not to say they are the only healers, only that they are the most widely known.

* * *

Mage: Caster

Trees:

Rune Mastery: Use of spell runes to buff self and others, also to lay traps. Focus on utility

Arcane: Use of arcane magic to damage. Arcane magic is able to synthesize various other elemental magics, such as fire and water, and yet it is still arcane at heart. Focus on damage.

Conjuration: Unlike necromancy, which conjures minions, Arcane conjurers call up weapons and armor to enhance their physical capabilities in battle. Focus on versatility.

The Arcane College is the premiere mage training place, teaching all who wish to learn. Many a powerful mage has come from this place. And, even those with no formal training have risen to become grand master mages.

* * *

Warlock: Caster

Trees:

Demonology: Summoning of demons and altering of self through demonic magic. Focus on pets and buffing both self and pets.

Fire: Use of fire as an agent of destruction. Focus on damage.

Alteration: Altering the world around themselves through demonic magic, temporarily or not. Focus on utility.

Much like Necromancers, Warlocks are deemed a necessary evil. They willingly call upon the aid of demons, use magic that was once exclusive to demons, and so on and so forth. And as such, they are not well liked, but still allowed to freely roam.

* * *

Shaman: Caster/Fighter

Trees:

Nature: Use of the natural world in order to heal and buff. Focus on buffing and healing.

Storm: Use of the natural energies of the storm in order to damage. Focus on damage.

Beast Mimicry: Use of magic to take on aspects of various animals in order to do battle. Focus on buffing self.

Shamanism rose from the tribal Satyr at first, before their ways were imitated by the Elves and Humans. The satyr welcomed these new Shaman with open arms, pleased to see so many had realized the effectiveness of the world around them.

* * *

Witch Doctor: Caster/Fighter

Trees:

Spirit: Calling upon the spirit world in order to heal and damage. Focus on healing and damage.

Alchemy: Use of various potions to buff and heal. Focus on buffing and healing.

Headhunting: Use of stealth and poisons to disable and defeat. Focus on debuffs and stealth.

The Witch Doctor was another pulled from the teachings of the Satyr. Witch Doctors are to Satyr what priests are to humans and elves.

* * *

Hunter: Ranged

Trees:

Beast Mastery: Taming and fighting alongside various animal companions. Focus on pets.

Gunnery: Forgoing bows and crossbows for the shorter ranged, and noisy, guns. Focus on ranged damage.

Hunting: Using twin hand crossbows or magically silenced pistols, reloaded via a clip, to stealthily and swiftly demolish foes. Focus on stealth.

Many stories of great hunters who tamed enormous beasts, slew terrible monsters, or even infiltrated bandit fortresses are told to this day. The current hunters often help this along.

* * *

Rogue: Stealth

Trees:

Assassination: Use of discretion and poisons to attack an enemies' weak point. Focus on stealth and debuffs.

Archery: Use of bow and arrow to strike at enemies' from afar. Focus on stealth and range damage.

Shadowbending: Using shadow magic to hide self or allies, and to damage enemies. Focus on stealth, stealth buffs, and close range magic.

Rogues were once the most prized of elven assassins. But then many master rogues broke off, and began teaching their ways to the other races. Which left a bad taste in the mouths of the remaining rogues. As such, elven rogues often butt heads with those of other races.

* * *

Paladin: Melee/Tank

Trees:

Divine: Use of divine magic to heal self and draw attention. Focus on self-healing and threat generation.

Crusade: Use of holy magics and melee weaponry to damage. Focus on damage.

Holy Wrath: Holy magics used to damage all foes nearby, drawing attention to self. Focus on aoe threat generation and damage.

The wrath of the divine is what fuels these holy warriors. They strike out in the name of their gods, often felling many a monster at a time. They fight with the power of their beliefs.

* * *

Warrior: Melee/Tank

Trees:

Rage: Use of constant vicious roars to taunt enemies into attacking in a blind rage. Focus on aoe threat generation and debuffs.

Weapons Mastery: Understanding of weapon use, allowing the warrior to perform much better with his weapons than otherwise. Focus on versatility.

Fury: Extremely fast, powerful attacks, and extreme pain tolerance. Focus on damage and tanking.

The Warriors were first made famous by the humans, when a group of swordsmen began calling themselves by the name. They swiftly cut through an entire army of demons who had been marching on Windguard, the primary human city. After this, the ten each taught several students in different cities and villages. These students taught their students, and so on and so forth.

* * *

Monk: Melee/Caster

Trees:

Martial Arts: Use of hand-to-hand combat to a degree that is astounding. Focus on damage.

Divine Hand: Use of divine magic and quick movement to heal allies and damage enemies. Focus on healing and damage.

Weapon Specialist: Use of various exotic weapons, such as double headed polearms, hand-scythes, and bladed chains.

Monks often train in the solitude of the mountains, finding a small are, normally near running water, and making it their home. Some have gone so far as to build up their own dojos, allowing challengers to come test their skills.

* * *

Bard: Caster

Trees:

Song: Use of magic and vocal commands to heal and buff. Focus on healing and buffing.

Wind: Use of wind instruments to deal damage. Focus on damage.

War-Song: Use of instrumental magic to buff and debuff, and damage. Focus on damage and buff/debuffs.

Bards can often be found in taverns, playing for a few pieces. and, less often, they can be found in the heat of battle, demolishing foes and saving friends with the power of their music.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. I do, however, own several things that I would trade for it. Sadly, none of them are of any worth.

Sorry this took so long, but I've not been able to just SIT and WRITE these blasted things as of late. League of Legends got in the way, if it helps give anyone any idea of what took me so long. I mean, it isn't JUST LoL, but that played a major part. I also watched Bakamongatari. I can't help but feel like I missed something, guessing bakamongatari is the second season/series to something else. Meh.

Oh, on that note, those of you who play LoL may see some familiar faces in this story.

* * *

Renald was a good man. He had a wife, two children, a steady job, good friends, and hobbies to keep him active in his down time. He was pleasant to be around, never started fights for no reason, and wasn't addicted to alcohol, sex, or any other vice that claimed many a man. Indeed, Renald was a good man.

He was currently on gate duty, which really just meant he sat around atop the wall and opened the gate via lever whenever travelers and merchants came around. Both were rare occasions, unless the annual Turtle Festival was drawing close. Sadly, however, the Turtle Festival was not due for another few months.

With this in mind, Renald was caught off guard at seeing the strange group walking up the stone pathway carved into the rock.

The group consisted of what seemed to be a Dark Elf hunter, who was idly patting the head of a Kirish of all things, a Fallen who carried a twin headed poleaxe and wore loose clothing, and a Snow Elf who was currently shirtless. Upon closer inspection, the hunter girl was garbed in what appeared to be the top half of the Snow Elf's robe. Probably had an accident with the trees, or something.

The snow elf was nibbling on what appeared to be a piece of dried meat, the hunter was stroking her apparant pet's head, and the red skinned fellow was... what was he doing? He seemed to be trying to touch his nose with his tongue.

Weird.

Finally, the group got close enough that he could call out to them. And so, in an official tone, he spoke. "What business do you folks have here?"

The snow elf, the apparant leader of the group, stepped forth. "We're looking for a place to stay for a bit. More likely than not, we'll be gone in a week."

Renald nodded his head. "Names?" He asked.

"Lelouch Lamperouge." Lelouch gestured to Anya with his hand. "Anya Alstreim." The girl waved. Lelouch moved his hand to point out Gino. "And that is Gino Weinberg." Gino waved aswell, with a lot more enthusiasm.

* * *

Lelouch inspected the gatekeeper for a moment. He looked rather average. Brown pants, white shirt, leather boots, brown hair, green eyes. He had a scar on his right cheek, that looked like it was from some sort of jagged blade. All in all, nothing too out of the ordinary.

The large gate opened, and the group walked through to see the town itself.

"Huh, pretty nice place." Gino whistled, looking around.

The town was a nice place indeed. Buildings were lined up neatly in rows, with varying amounts of space from one to another, resulting in different sized alleys. Some were wide as the streets themselves, others were barely the width of two people side by side. The roads themselves were simple cobblestone.

Buildings were mainly made from wood, with some stone buildings here and there. At the center of the town was a large stone wall, that seemed to circle something. Lelouch assumed it was the home of the mayor. Or whoever led the place. Perhaps it was something else entirely.

"Yes, it is. Now we need to locate an inn." Lelouch looked around, noticing right away that there seemed to be an inn right infront of the gate. Convenient location. "Looks like there's one nearby, too."

"The Bread and Butter inn? Weird name. I like it." Gino said. Anya giggled a bit at the name.

The voice of the gatekeeper caught their attention. "Yeah, ol' Sam and his wife Gracia run the place. They also have a pub on the first floor, and serve specialty bread. Y'know, stuff like cheese bread, spice breads, so on. Sam likes to put almost anything he can into the dough." The man laughed. "Oh, names Renald, by the way. Just wanted to tell you that while the town don't mind having hunters and their pets around, the inns don't like to have animals wandering their halls. The Bread and Butter also has a stable made specifically with hunter pets in mind, so that ain't too much of a problem. Just check in there first to drop off your little pal there, before you go in to get a room."

Hadron looked at Anya, having understood what the man was saying, to some degree. He got the gist of it; humans didn't want him in their dens, but they had a den dedicated to animals too.

Anya patted his head, reassuringly. "Don't worry." She said. The Kirish cooed, pleased with the affection he was receiving.

Renald finally couldn't help himself. "So, you guys have an accident with the foliage around here or something? I mean, uh, the topless guy and the girl with what looks like a robe top?" Well, didn't that come out so smoothly. Damn, he felt akward now.

Lelouch frowned, and Anya blushed, with her gaze downward. "We had a run-in with a giant bipedal lizard. It landed a slash on her and managed to tear her shirt. So I gave her the top half of my robe." He explained. "That said, I'm guessing you know someplace where we could buy more clothing?"

Renald nodded. "Yep. Blanca owns the place. Best damn tailor in the town. Takes custom orders, and has a lotta premade stuff too. It's about three minutes walk from here, that-a-way." He pointed off to the left. "Just keep headed straight, can't miss the place. Big needle'n'thread on the sign." His expression turned a bit more serious. "Now, mind telling me more about the lizardman attack? The blasted creatures have been tormenting the town since we built the place, but lately it's getting ridiculous. They've been trying to climb the walls recently, and some have gotten as far as half way up in the last attempt. Our archers are on high alert now."

Gino answered, this time. "We were out by Lizard Rock when it happened. The Kirish up there didn't mind us too much, so we spent the night up there after I fixed up Anya's wound. There was only one of them, but it poisoned it's claws."

Renald frowned. "The poison users are pretty rare, actually. They make the stuff themselves, suprisingly enough. We aren't sure what it is, and we've found no anti-venom for it. Only magical healing tends to work. Luckily, even novice healers can cure the poison with ease, otherwise quite a few cases could have been fatal. Bah, I'm rambling. Go on and get yourselves situated in town. I'll see ya around." He waved, before climbing back up the staircase that lead to his guard station.

"Well, he was a nice guy." Gino said, nodding.

"Yes, he was. Now then, the inn?" Lelouch replied.

Anya cleared her throat pointedly, gesturing to Hadron. "We need to visit the stable before we can get a room."

Lelouch nodded. "Yeah, we do, don't we? Alright, let's go."

* * *

"I'm sorry, but we only have two rooms left." The woman behind the counter said, hands clasped together before her. "You see, recently the mayor hired a group of mercenaries, the Kirono Corps, to aid in the protection of the town. They're currently residing in the only other inn in town, so all of the other travelers have taken rooms here." She explained, apologetically.

She was a young looking woman, but according to her she was in her early forties. She didn't look a day over twenty five. Her black hair was tied back, falling to her mid back in a ponytail.

"I see..." Lelouch muttered. The rooms each had only one bed, seeing as how the multi-bed rooms were taken by various traveling families. "Isn't this a problem..."

"Y'know, Lelouch, you and Anya could always share a room." Gino teased, much to the pink haired girl's embarrassment.

"G-Gino!" Anya shouted, a barely noticeable blush across her cheeks. Not to say she didn't like the idea...

"Very funny, Gino. I doubt Anya would agree." Lelouch dismissed the teasing. He'd put up with worse.

"What? I'm serious, here. The last two days, each time I've woken up she's been using you as a pillow." Gino continued.

The woman behind the counter was laughing silently, hiding her mouth with her hand. She found the entire situation rather cute, especially considering the bright blush that the girl now sported. She also noticed the state of their current attire.

"And she still hasn't disagreed with me~!" Gino chirped.

He was right, actually. Anya hadn't said a word since the first outburst. Lelouch rolled his eyes, going along with it. "What do you think, Anya?" He asked.

A few moments later, she muttered something under her breath. "What?" He asked, leaning in. Why was she being so quiet?

"I don't mind..." The girl muttered.

Lelouch blinked. "Uh, alright. I guess, if you don't care." Better than having to figure out what to do about rooming with Gino, he guessed.

The black haired woman smiled, with a knowing look in her eyes. "So, then, you'll be taking the two rooms? How long would you like to book them for? The fee is fifty silver pieces a night."

Ah, that's right. The book had mentioned the currency system. One hundred copper pieces is a silver piece, one hundred silver is a gold, and one hundred gold is a platinum piece. He handed the woman four gold pieces. "We'll take the rooms for four nights, each."

She nodded. "Alright. My name is Gracia, by the way. I'll show you to your rooms."

* * *

After getting their rooms, the group split up for a bit. Anya and Lelouch headed off to the clothing store Renald had mentioned, while Gino went off to do... whatever it was Gino did in strange places.

He hoped Gino didn't get them kicked out of town on day one.

After a few minutes of walking, Lelouch and Anya came to what seemed to be the tailor's store. The sign read "The Threaded Needle.", and was, as Renald had said, a large wooden cutout of a needle, with a thread through it's eye. The building itself was two stories, made of wood, and had a large window display which showed various outfits.

Lelouch nodded his head. "This seems to be the place. Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's go." Anya replied.

Lelouch opened the door, before smirking. "Ladies first." He said, performing an over-dramatic bow as he gestured for her to enter.

Anya laughed a bit. "How nice of you." She said, walking in.

Lelouch snickered a bit, before following.

The inside of the store was very nice. Near the back of the store sat a desk, with a staircase behind it. Before that, were several racks of various clothes. Robes, dresses, pants, shirts, and so on. The floor was almost entirely covered by an absolutely enormous red rug, with golden patterns running along the edges,

Seated at the desk was a man of elven decent. His hair was a light blonde color, his eyes a light blue. He wore an elaborate robe, colored red with golden accents along the sleeves. Down the center of the robe, a dark purple stripe, nearly black, reached all the way to the waist. The purple strip also had golden accents, in a more geometric form of a double helix.

He smiled as he saw the two enter. "Welcome to the Threaded Needle. I'm Blanca, how may I help you today?" He eyed their current clothing. "Accident out in the swamps?" His smirk turned a bit... suggestive. "Or perhaps someone likes to play rough?"

That brought a blush to the faces of both Lelouch and Anya. "N-nothing like that! We were attacked by a lizardman." Lelouch calmed down first. Anya was still sputtering nonsense, with a bright blush.

Blanca began laughing. "Sorry, sorry. I'm joking. I get bored sometimes, y'know? Anyway, a lizardman? Lousy cretins. Been messing with the town a lot lately. Lotta the travelers are scared to leave the town, what with the frequency of the attacks. S'why the mayor hired the Kirono Corps to patrol the swamps."

Anya calmed down enough to level a petulant glare at the man, something that amused him. "Those mercenaries that Gracia was telling us about? They patrol out in the swamps?"

Blanca smiled. "Yeah. They've been here for a couple of weeks. From what I know of their routine, they send a group of ten guys out each night to patrol. And these aren't regular militia, they're trained soldiers. Mages, priests, hunters, warriors, the full nine yards. I've heard they've run into quite a few of the creatures so far, but no matter how many they go through, more seem to show up. Kinda scary, actually." He frowned, before his expression changed instantly. "Enough about that, let's talk clothes. What kind do you two need?"

Anya answered first. "We both need a few more full outfits. As of now, all we have are what we're in now."

Lelouch nodded at the elf's questioning glance. "Yes, during our travels we lost the rest of our clothing. Our camping spot was attacked, and in the confusion we had lost quite a few of our possesions." He certainly couldn't tell him that they had only spawned with one pair of clothes. That wouldn't go over very well at all.

"More lizards?" Blanca asked.

Lelouch nodded. "We've had a few run-ins with them."

The elf nodded. "Right. Feel free to look around. Nothing is really organized in any fashion whatsoever, so have fun." He smirked at their dumbfounded looks. "What? It's just me working here, you honestly think I seem like the type to keep an organized shop?"

And so the search began.

* * *

Nearly half an hour later, both Lelouch and Anya had found clothing they liked. Anya had taken several pairs of loose legged cloth pants, all of which were black or brown, and just as many shirts in various colors. She had currently changed into a pair of black pants, and was wearing a pink shirt with long sleeves.

Lelouch was wearing a dark purple robe, with royal purple trim. An attachment of draping cloth fell from the neck to his biceps, colored the same royal purple, but with dark purple trim. He'd bought three of them, one of which was a bluish black and gold combination that brought back memories.

Unfortunately, Blanca's store didn't sell shoes. Which left Lelouch barefoot.

"Alright. Since you guys are new in town, and I like you, I'll give you a small discount. Ten gold for everything. And you said you had a friend, too?" Blanca asked.

"Yes. He's a blonde haired Fallen, with a large twin headed poleaxe. You can't miss him. He'll be by eventually, I'm sure." Lelouch handed the man ten gold pieces.

Gino currently had ten gold pieces with him at the moment, while Lelouch and Anya had the rest of their pooled money. As of now, Anya and Lelouch had a total of thirty six gold pieces left.

"I'll be sure to give him the same discount, if he doesn't make me hate him the moment I see him." Blanca smirked.

Anya laughed. "I'm sure the two of you will get along well." Lelouch nodded in agreement. The two then made their way back into the streets, before beginning to speak again.

"Now what should we do, Anya?" Lelouch asked, looking around idly.

"I'm going to go get Hadron, since we're out and about. I'll come find you later, alright?" She replied, before heading off.

Lelouch shrugged, before searching around for something to hold his attention. He began walking, with no real destination in mind. Soon he found himself in an open market area, and decided to see what gossip he could pick up from the place.

"Did you hear? Marina is pregnant!" One woman spoke to another. Lelouch ignored that conversation, listening for anything else as he moved about aimlessly.

"The lizards have been gettin' more aggressive as of late. Heard they killed off one'a them Kirono Corps mercs." A man with a gruff voice announced.

"Seriously? That's kinda' scary. Know which one it was?" Another asked.

"Heard it was 'at Fallen Warlock they kept around. Ain't too fond'a them myself, but wouldn't wish death on'em." The first man replied.

'A Fallen Warlock was killed by the lizardmen? A bit disturbing...' Lelouch thought to himself. He continued on, not catching anything else of any real value. As he was about to simply head back to the inn in hopes of finding Anya or Gino, something caught his eye.

A flash of lime green hair. His eyes widened. Could it be? He moved in the direction in which he had seen the color, before he spotted it again. Yes, it was a woman with lime green hair. He moved quickly, but not frantically, in an attempt to catch up.

Soon he was out of the market, following the green haired figure around corners, through alleyways, and down the street. He knew it was her now. No one else was so utterly infuriating to follow.

He saw her turn a corner, and as he turned the same corner he found a pair of lithe arms wrapped around him. "Hi, boya." She whispered into his ear. "Happy to see me?" She asked.

"C.C., why am I not suprised?" He muttered, a bit annoyed that she had gotten the drop on him so easily.

He could feel her shrug, despite her arms remaining firmly around him. "Because you're the oh so brilliant Zero, and you plan for everything?"

"Very funny." He grunted. "Care to explain the situation, C.C.?"

"Well, I was bored, so I decided to make you chase me around a bit." She responded, knowing it wasn't what he wanted to hear.

He sighed. "Can you please give me an answer, C.C.?" He implored.

C.C.'s smirk softened into a small smile. "Alright. We're currently in a type of alternate universe, held within a pocket dimension known as "Geiis". The entrance to which is a board game. Or, rather, it is now. A few hundred years ago, who knows what it could have been. Activating it has completely stopped time outside of Geiis, by the way. It's like Rolo's Geass... but on the scale of a God, if one existed. So no worries about being here too long."

Lelouch frowned, but he could tell that was all he'd be getting for now. "Alright. Allow me to explain my situation to you, then."

The green haired girl allowed her eyebrow to raise in curiosity. "Oh, do tell." She said, finally breaking her hold on him in. She moved infront of him, leaning against a wall. Which allowed him to see her attire.

"Nice outfit." He said. C.C. smirked, before making a "get on with it" motion with her hand. "As of now, I am traveling with Anya Alstreim and Gino Weinberg, both of whom know my identity as Lelouch vi Brittannia, and my identity as Zero."

C.C. blinked. "Uhm... you know, I hadn't expected you to say that, Lelouch. And now that you have, there's a small issue you may need to take care of."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow, before replying. "And that would be?"

A new, but chillingly familiar, voice cut in. "Explaining to little Kaguya-chan just why you never bothered to let her know you were alive, Le~louch."

Lelouch stiffened, before turning around, _slowly, _to confirm what he had just heard. And there, standing before him, was Kaguya, looking a bit different than her norm. Light grey skin, red silky robe, but he couldn't forget those emerald eyes.

Emerald eyes that were glaring at him, though he could tell it was half-hearted. "Kaguya... you're here too?" He asked, trying to wrap his head around it.

She walked up to him, and poked him in the chest. "Yes, I am. And you've got some explaining to do!" Her glare softened to a brilliant smile, as she leapt at him, knocking him over.

She used to do that all the time back at the Kururugi Shrine, come to think of it.

"I'm so glad you're alive." She whispered, hugging him tightly.

Lelouch sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but..." Why hadn't he told her, actually? He had told Kirihara, who he wasn't actually as close to as Kaguya, in order to gain the unquestioned support of the Six Houses of Kiyoto. He already had Kaguya's support, oddly enough, so why hadn't he revealed himself to her? Was he afraid she would've given him away? Not likely, the girl was too smart to allow something like that to slip.

"But..?" Kaguya asked, eyes shining.

"I wanted Zero to be someone other than Lelouch. He had to be his own persona. He couldn't be attached to anyone." Lelouch responded.

"I don't get it." Kaguya huffed. "But there is one thing I want to do..." She gave him a mischievous look.

"Can I get off the ground fir- Mmph!" His sarcastic reply was cut off as the girl pressed her lips to his.

C.C. blinked. "That was... actually, no, it wasn't really unexpected at all." She admitted to herself.

A moment later, Kaguya broke the kiss, before standing up and brushing off her robe like nothing happened. "I wanted to do that since I was little, actually." She said cheerfully.

Lelouch gave her a dead-pan look. "Did your father keep adult magazines around you?" He asked, rhetorically.

"No, but I found the ones Suzaku kept hidden in his dresser." She replied.

Lelouch palmed his face. She was being serious, wasn't she? "Uhg..." He groaned. "He seriously had adult magazines? We were ten."

"Maybe he was an early bloomer?" While she didn't say it, Lelouch could almost hear her thinking "Like me."

"Well, Kaguya-chan, you've gone and given your first kiss to Lelouch. Do you intend to give him another first of yours?" C.C. asked.

Kaguya blushed a bright red, before giggling with her hands covering her mouth.

Lelouch didn't know if that scared him more than her saying "Yes." would have.

He was still scared either way.

* * *

Lelouch, Kaguya, and C.C. entered the Bread and Butter inn in time to see Gino in an arm wrestling contest with a burly looking man. Anya was watching on, amusedly, as Gino almost effortlessly won. "Ah yeah, I am the best! C'mon, who can take me down!" The blonde yelled, jovially.

"Gino... what are you doing?" Lelouch asked, drawing the attention of the entire pub.

"I was having some fun until you came back. Got bored of exploring after I found the turtles. Oh, and there's an outdoor bath in town too." Gino noticed the two with him. "Who's your friends?" He asked, drawing Anya's attention to the two girls with Lelouch. A green haired woman dressed in a skimpy outfit, and a younger girl in a red robe.

The two also noticed something that Lelouch had picked up on earlier; namely, the fact that the two girls were being given distrustful stares by nearly everyone they came across.

"Hn, halfbloods..." One man muttered, drinking his ale distastefully. Another nodded his agreement, but said nothing. The innkeeper and his wife, who were both currently in the pub area, both seemed like they could care less. "Can't believe Gracia'd give'm a room..." The same man continued, lowly. Lelouch only caught his statement through luck, actually.

"Nick, you're not bein' fair and you know it. They ain't done nothin'." A third man grunted, unconcerned with C.C. and Kaguya. The first man scoffed, but said nothing more. The room had risen back to it's cheerful clammer in a few moments, and it seemed the two had been forgotten for the moment.

Seeing this as a good enough time to speak, Gino did just that. "So... your friends?" He asked.

"Perhaps we should go somewhere more private for this conversation?" Lelouch suggested, eyes darting about.

Anya shrugged, and Gino nodded his head. "Alright, lead the way, Lelouch."

And so, Lelouch exited the tavern/inn. He walked off towards a moderately sized alleyway, before stopping once he made sure no one obvious was around.

"Alright. This will do." Lelouch said as he turned around. "Introductions are in order." He gestured to C.C. first. "This is C.C., the girl from the Shinjuku incident, and the spark that set my revolution in motion."

Gino and Anya both gasped. "You're serious? How did she even get here?" Anya asked.

"I walked, silly girl." C.C. replied, sauntering infront of Anya. She leaned down to her eye level. "... I always pegged him as a lolicon." She announced, twirling away. Anya's face lit up like a Christmas tree, while Lelouch palmed his face. Gino was laughing loudly. Kaguya huffed.

Anya attempted to say something, but it mostly came out as incoherent babbling. Lelouch finally spoke. "C.C., don't tease the girl. She's shy." Of course, he didn't seem to catch on to the fact that this only happened when he was involved.

Of course, C.C. could tell he knew. Decade after decade of seeing situations like this play themselves out had given her the kind of insight that no one could match. So, why was he pretending to be oblivious? Maybe he didn't find her attractive? Not likely, she thought. C.C. still held a firm belief that Lelouch was into that kind of girl.

She giggled at the thought of him doting on Anya and Kaguya like he had Nunnally, which drew everyone's attention to her. "Nothing, nothing." She snickered into her hand. "Just an amusing thought I had."

"Right. C.C. knows of the two of you already, so no need to introduce yourselves." He gestured to Kaguya next. "Kaguya also knows of you."

At the mention of her name, Gino's eyes lit up in recognition. "Right! You're that Sumeragi girl who brought Zero with her to the Chinese Empress's wedding!" He laughed. "The reactions from the higher ups was hysterical later that night. Everyone but Prince Schneizel was freaking out!"

Kaguya smiled. "It was all his idea." She pointed to Lelouch, who shrugged.

"What? I needed to make an entrance." He said.

"Because crashing the wedding and putting a gun to Jiang's head wasn't enough of an entrance? You scared her half to death." Kaguya replied.

Lelouch shrugged, again, in a nonchalant manner. "It wasn't loaded. Do you think I would put a loaded gun to the head of a little girl, when I was bluffing from the start?"

Kaguya wrapped her arms around Lelouch, much to Anya's ire, and began to nuzzle her cheek into his chest. "Oh, I knew you didn't risk her life like that! Xingke still doesn't forgive you for it, you know. She told me that while we were talking about you once."

"Why were the two of you talking about me?" Lelouch asked, preparing for the worst.

"Oh, I was telling her about how great of a husband you are." Kaguya continued to hug him, and Anya was twitching in annoyance by this point.

"Husband?" Gino asked, smirking.

"Yes. She's insistent that the two of them are destined for one another, she was before she even knew who was under the mask." C.C. replied. She smirked deviously, giving a suggestive glance to Anya. "She also said something about "not minding her Zero-sama being manly with other women."..."

Kaguya took the shocked stares from Gino and Anya in stride, giving the pinkette an innocent smile. "Of course. Why would I want to keep him all to myself? I know I'm not the only one who loves him." She broke her hug, moving to stand next to C.C. "Isn't that right, C.C.?" She asked, giving the immortal witch a smile. C.C. rolled her eyes.

Gino and Anya recovered from their shock, before deciding to just forget most of the conversation.

* * *

After introductions had finished, Lelouch and co. decided to head to the open air bath Gino had found earlier that day.

Apparantly, the bath was owned by a mage who kept up most of the premises via magical runes. Very interesting stuff.

Of course, that didn't really matter to Lelouch at the moment. He was just happy to feel the water soothing his body. "I'm glad you found this place, Gino."

"So'm I. Wonder if the girls are enjoying it?" The blonde asked, stretching his arms above his head.

"I'm sure they are. I don't know any woman who wouldn't enjoy a hot bath." A feminine voice called.

Both Lelouch and Gino turned to find the owner of the voice, and promptly found themselves blushing madly. Before them, exiting from the men's changing room, was a beautiful blonde woman with pointed ears. A completely naked blonde woman. Her skin was tanned, and her green eyes sparkled mischievously.

"Like what you see~?" The woman sung, slipping into the bath.

Lelouch calmed himself first. "Uhm, miss... you're in the male's side of the bath." He pointed out the obvious.

"I know." She replied simply. "But since I own the place, I can pretty much do whatever I want. Like this!" Her green eyes twinkled as she snapped her finger, and the divider in the center of the large spring seemed to shrink, until it was like it never existed.

Which, of course, freaked out the girls on the other side of the formerly dividing wall. Anya and Kaguya were both blushing wildly, arm's crossed over their chests as they sunk deeper into the water. C.C. just raised a brow, unconcerned.

"So, yeah. Since it's been a slow day, I got bored and decided to have some fun. Name's Mira!" The elven woman announced, making no attempt to cover herself at all as she stretched her arms above herself, much like Gino had. Except, you know, she had breasts. Which was a fact made more obvious by the action. Gino was currently looking away, while Lelouch's eyes were closed.

"Your idea of fun is to embarrass the people who are currently using your spring? Isn't that bad for business?" Lelouch muttered.

"Well, when I do stuff like this, I usually don't charge for using the spring. And most of the guys who've been around when I do this don't care. As a matter of fact, they usually stare. Which is why I find it so amusing that the two of you aren't." Mira explained. She then looked over toward's the women's side of the pool, and smirked. "Oh, look, the cuties are embarrassed!" She cooed, wading over to the pair of mortified girls.

Anya just glared at her, her nose was just barely above water at this point. Kaguya was a bit less embarrassed, only covering her small breasts with her crossed arms, rather than sinking herself beneath the water. C.C. watched on from her relaxed position at the edge of the spring, reclining enough that her breasts were beneath the water.

"Why did you get rid of the divider?" Kaguya asked, trying to keep her humiliation out of her voice.

"Because I wanted to see what happened." Was the simple reply from the blonde elf. "Don't tell me you don't like the view?" She asked, nodding over to the male side.

Kaguya allowed herself to look, and she had to admit she didn't mind the view. Wet, naked Lelouch? How could she not like that? She blushed a deeper red, before letting herself sink under the water entirely for a few moments.

In actuality, this didn't help at all. Something Kaguya hadn't considered when doing this was that she was not a human at the moment. And as such, certain parts of her anatomy were improved beyond human standards. Her eyes, being the part we're talking about right now. Half-demons, as she was now, had greatly improved eyesight as a general rule. Some had night vision. Some could see clearly under water.

Kaguya had learned, just then, that she was of the latter variety.

As of right now, the red staining Kaguya's cheeks would be putting tomatoes to shame. She began to giggle perversely, her hands on her cheeks. "Oh, Lelouch..." She whispered, before going off on another tangent of giggling.

Lelouch was blissfully unaware, as he and Gino were still not looking.

"Wow. Someone must have _really_ liked the view." Mira noted.

* * *

The intrusion from Mira had caused the group to get out earlier than they had intended, due to obvious issues. Namely, Kaguya being unable to put together a sentence properly. Anya had yet to stop glaring at the woman who had decided to remove the divider from the spring, before mercilessly teasing the two girls about how cute they looked when they were embarrassed.

She had been telling the truth when she said that she wouldn't charge for their use of the spring, since she had disrupted their relaxation. In the end, they all said their goodbyes and left on pretty good terms.

Kaguya was actually in a better mood than normal.

However, the entire series of events had taken up what remained of the day, and so now we find the group back in the inn, seated at a large table near the very back of the pub, completely secluded from the rest of the people within. "So, what should we do once we finish up here?" Lelouch asked C.C., seeing as she seemed to know more about this world than all of them put together.

"From my experience, we'll be stuck here for a very long time. Perhaps years. To leave, a certain objective must be completed... but the objective is entirely random." C.C. answered.

"Whoa, seriously? We could be stuck here for years? I know that the time-stop thingy going on back home is keeping things from going out of whack, but what about us? Will we come out ten years older or something?" Gino wondered.

"I can't say I know. I'm immortal, so age is irrelevant to me." She replied.

Lelouch sighed. "Our first priority should be to link up with the rest of the group. Nina, Suzaku, and Shirley may be extremely dangerous to approach, and if we do so it should be with caution."

"I understand avoiding Suzaku and Nina... but why Shirley?" Anya questioned.

Lelouch's eyes turned downcast, and he sighed. "A few reasons. First and foremost, I killed her father."

Gino's widened, and Anya and Kaguya gasped. "H-how?" The pinkette asked.

He answered in a grim voice. "Narita. The landslide."

Gino was first to reply. "Oh... man. So, she knows you're Zero too? She never seemed like it."

"I forced her to forget, using a power similar to that of the Emperor, who messed with our minds." He gestured to Anya and himself. "Mine is different. I can give someone a command, and they must follow it to the letter. In truth, I forced her to forget about me entirely, and we had to start our friendship over again from day one." He allowed a small smile onto his lips. "Despite this, she turned out almost exactly the same in the end..."

"Right. So be careful about Suzaku, Nina, and Shirley." Gino said.

Kaguya raised her hand. "Who is Nina? The name seems familiar, but I've never met her, I think."

Lelouch sighed. "The green haired girl from China? The one who tried to stab me?"

The girl's eyes went wide. "What! She went to school with you?" She frowned. "Being Zero really took it's toll on your friends, didn't it?" Kaguya asked, eyes full of concern.

"Yes, it did. My first male friend hates me for killing Euphie, I accidentally killed Shirley's father, and Nina also hates me for killing Euphie. So, that's three of my friends who are well within their rights to despise me. The less we mention of my family, the better..." If someone payed close attention, they could tell he had trouble when mentioning the "Massacre Princess." C.C. was the only one who really picked up on it.

Gino scratched the back of his head with a sigh. "Yeah." He said. "Suzaku... he really took her death hard. You could tell without even knowing him before it happened." He growled, once something came to his mind. "Luciano seemed to think it was funny. Bastard kept joking about how much he wished he could have been her knight, so he could have seen the SAZ massacre in person."

Lelouch growled. "Once we get out of here, I am killing him." He promised.

"I don't get it..." Anya muttered. "I just don't understand why the princess would've done that. She was so nice. It doesn't make sense."

A flinch from the resident snow elf caught her eye. She could see, from her seat across from him at the table, the beginnings of tears in his eyes. "It was my fault. I made her do it." He said, finally.

"What!" Gino shouted, standing from the table. This drew the attention of the pub-goers, but he soon calmed himself and sat back down. Once the attention had died down, he spoke in an angry tone. "You made her do it? With that power of yours?" He looked furious. Lelouch couldn't blame him.

Unexpectedly, C.C. broke into the conversation. "It was an accident." She said, simply.

"An... accident?" Anya asked, flabbergasted.

"Yes. It was." Lelouch sounded... dull. Dead. All the life seemed to just drain out of him, thinking about that particular incident. "The SAZ was the perfect political counter the the Black Knights. If we continued to agress, we would be viewed as simple terrorists rather than the revolutionaries we had worked so hard to portray ourselves as, and our recruitment would plummet. Many of the Black Knights would simply leave outright, thinking we had won. It wasn't the true freedom that they wanted, but so many of them were happy with it."

His voice had started to fill back out, rather than being as hollow as it had started. Now he seemed angrier. "When we went off stage, I told her to shoot me once we got back on. I handed her a gun I had gotten past the security. But she refused. I was furious. All I had worked for... and she was going to ruin it with her good intentions. And yet, I gave up. I wasn't going to force her. She tried to cheer me up through conversation after I agreed, and it was working. I told her about my power, Geass, and she didn't believe me. I insisted it was true, giving examples of ridiculous things I could force her to do... I told her I could make her murder all of the Japanese, because I knew that it was something she would never do in a million lifetimes. Of course, as fate would have it, my Geass activated on it's own just as I said it. You know the rest."

He stood, shoulders slumped. "I'm going to head up and go to sleep." Lelouch threw a set of keys to Anya. "I'm going to lock the door, so feel free to stay up as late as you like." And with that, he made his way up the stairs.

Kaguya blinked. "Wait. You two are sharing a room?" She asked, looking pointedly at Anya, who nodded apathetically. "I thought the innkeeper said we got the last two bed room, C.C.?" The gray skinned girl continued.

"We did." C.C. grinned. "Those two are sharing a bed, from what I've heard."

Anya turned to glare at Gino, who held his hands up apologetically, while laughing heartily. "What? I think it's cute, Anya." He announced with a grin.

"Grr..." Anya growled. "I'm going to go to bed too." She stood up, and walked up the stairs.

Gino looked at her as she left. He yawned, stretching out. "Yeah... think I'll hit the hay too. See ya' tomorrow." He waved over his shoulder, before heading off.

C.C. and Kaguya decided to get some sleep too, since it was either that or sit around doing nothing until everyone woke up.

* * *

Anya unlocked the door to the room, and wasn't suprised to see Lelouch seated on the edge of the bed, clothed in a pair of cloth pants, leaving his chest bare.

"Up here already?" He asked, looking at her. "Everyone decided to turn in, then?"

Anya shrugged, slipping out of her shoes. "Not sure." A pout found it's way to her lips. "Gino was teasing me." She muttered.

Lelouch chuckled. "About what?" He asked.

"Sharing a bed with you." Was her reply.

He shrugged, before stretching out, his back popping audibly. "It's not like it's something new to me. Nunnally shared a bed with me quite a bit." Lelouch frowned. "Nightmares will do that to you, I suppose."

The pinkette nodded. If anyone she knew had anything to have nightmares about, it would've been Nunnally. Or even Lelouch, once she thought about it. She felt like she had to ask. "Do you ever have nightmares, Lulu?"

He flinched. "... Sometimes. I suppose Nunnally wasn't the only one who needed the comfort of a warm body next to them, some nights."

Something crossed Anya's mind for a moment. "You're not concerned with sharing a bed with me because you did the same with Nunna? Does that mean you think of me like a sister?" She asked.

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "Would you like me to say no?" He asked.

"Yes, I would..." Anya muttered, before hopping into the bed. Literally hopping, too. Lelouch sighed, before turning off the gas powered lamp, allowing the small flame to die out.

"Then no, I don't think of you as a sister. I'm just comfortable sharing a bed with you." He said, as he got himself comfortable.

Anya snuggled into the blankets, happy to actually be sleeping in a bed for the first time in a few days. She noticed Lelouch falling asleep almost immediately, and smiled. Her new eyes could see his face perfectly well in the dark, as he lie on his side, facing her. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping.

A mischievous smile formed as she thought of something that would definitely make Lelouch realize how she felt. Or confuse the hell out of him. Either one would be fine, really.

With this in mind, she slipped the semi-loose pants off of her small frame, leaving her in a pair of pink panties and her pink shirt, before pressing herself against him. She also pushed her shirt up in such a way that her midriff was bare, blushing at the contact of their bare skin. To finish things off, she removed the ribbon from her hair and let if fall down.

Yes, if this didn't make it obvious how she felt about her Lulu, then it would at least serve to confuse him. Either one was fine, really.

* * *

As these light hearted events went on, other events that were decidedly NOT light hearted were taking place.

"Hald, have you finished the array yet?" A man wearing a full suit of heavy iron armor inquired, hand resting on the hilt of his shortsword. The man's head was covered by a full helmet, styled after a dragon, and upon his back rested an enormous hammer, it had to weigh as much as a full grown man.

Granted, this man was much larger than the average full grown man. Much larger. He stood at nearly eight feet, and seemed nearly three feet wide. All of it appeared to be muscle and iron.

"Yes, Lord Kirono. With the proper amount of sacrifices, the patron will be revived." A red skinned man with black hair answered, stepping back to inspect his handiwork. Upon the wall before him was a large series of complex symbols and runes, glowing an eery red color. He smoothed out his solid black robe, smiling in a sadistic fashion. "The blood spilled above ground will be drawn directly to this array; sent directly to the dark lord himself, to create and empower his new form."

The armored man, Kirono, laughed loudly behind his helmet. "Excellent! See to it that the control runes remain intact, it's about time those lizardmen made themselves useful." He cackled wildly. "I can't wait to see the look on the mayor's face when I kill his family in front of him. I'll cut his head off right then, and keep it as a trophy."

Behind Kirono, a large group of men in various states of dress, armed with various weapons, cheered. "For the Dark One!"

"Blood for the Blood King!"

"Our Lord demands sacrifice!"

"The Fallen Lord shall rise once more, never to fall again!"

"That fool Nelphan will pay for her treachery!"

Kirono's laughter ceased. "ENOUGH!" He shouted, silencing the men instantly. "Prepare. Our assault will begin as the sun sets tomorrow. Sharpen your blades, your minds, and your eyes." His volume grew. "For tomorrow, we shal BATHE in the blood of the innocent, and it shall be GLORIOUS!" He shouted.

The men yelled their agreement, before the shouts died down. A single man walked through the crowd. "Lord Kirono. We may have an issue. It seems Centralan is sending a small, but elite, group of soldiers to the town of Willowgreens in order to aide in it's protection from the lizardman threat. We estimate three to five elite soldiers are being sent, at least one skilled in the magical arts. Shall I modify the plan to fit them, My Lord?"

Kirono growled. "Blasted mayor. I'll make certain he suffers greatly for this. Yes, Settoh, alter the plan as you see fit to deal with our uninvited guests. I want no chances taken, we MUST revive the Dark One!"

"Yes, My Lord. Your will shall be done." The man, Settoh, replied, before moving to the back of the large cavern in which the group was located. These caverns ran beneath the entirety of Willowgreens, and were famous as it's only tourist attraction because of the wildlife. Cave Turtles.

Cave turtles were, unlike all other reptiles, warm blooded. Cave turtles were warm, no, HOT blooded. Their blood was just below the boiling point. And so they constantly needed to remain out of warm areas, the caves in which they dwelled were moist and cool.

It should be noted, that this particular cavern had no traces of the famous reptile whatsoever.

* * *

Day came too quickly for Kaguya's tastes.

The young girl rolled out of bed, unable to keep herself there any longer. She noticed C.C. had already woken up, and was currently dressed in what looked like another version of her previous outfit, but in a darker brown. The cloak remained the same, however.

Kaguya stretched, letting the cool air wash over her bare skin. C.C. looked over at her, a small smirk on her lips. "They're hard." She said, simply.

Kaguya gave her a glare. "It's cold and I'm naked. Of course my nipples would be hard." She stuck her tongue out at the immortal.

C.C. shrugged. "Oh, I know. I just felt like pointing it out in hopes that you'd cover yourself and stammer incoherently."

The black haired girl paused for a moment. "Why would you hope for that?" She asked.

"Because then I could picture the first time Lelouch see's you naked." Was her well thought out response.

And this time, Kaguya did start stammering incoherently.

C.C. loved when a plan came together.

* * *

Lelouch had to wonder just how this situation had come to be.

He had gone to sleep in a fairly normal way, despite sharing a bed with a girl two years his junior. Waking up, however, was far less normal.

Somehow, during the night, Anya had managed to practically strip herself naked. As of now, her shirt was pushed up enough that he could very clearly feel her bare breasts, small though they were, pressing against his chest. Not to mention the fact that she had somehow lost her pants aswell.

It was taking a fair bit of self control on Lelouch's part, but he managed to keep himself from being clearly aroused. This meaning, of course, that he lacked an erection. Though when Anya began to squirm around ontop of him... 'I should feel a lot more freaked out than this. There is a half naked sixteen year old lying on top of me... and she won't stop moving.' Every little shift she made rubbed her chest against his, and it was driving him crazy trying to keep from reacting.

He was somewhat afraid to wake her up, unsure as to whether or not she would scream or otherwise draw other people's attention to the scene. He was tempted to think that she had done this on purpose, because honestly, how does someone throw their pants across the room while sleeping?

She moved again, but this time, he realized, she had woken up. And now she was giving him a half-lidded gaze.

'She looks absolutely adorable like that.' He thought. His eyes went wide as she leaned forward, stealing a quick kiss from him, before sitting up. Which left her straddling him, with her chest clearly visible. He couldn't stop the hard on this time, and she noticed.

Her crimson eyes widened, and her cheeks colored to match them. "M-morning, L-Lulu." She stuttered.

He gulped. She hadn't fixed her shirt yet. And he knew she could feel his shaft pressing against her bottom._  
_

With this in mind, Anya made a decision. She leaned back down, pulling him into a more passionate kiss, and ground her hips against him, which caused him to moan in shock and pleasure.

She broke the kiss, looking directly into his eyes. "Lulu, I love you." She whispered. "I don't know if I'm like this because I've gone so long without feeling anything, or if I've really loved you since we were little, but right now I want to be with you more than anything else." She moved her hand down to his length, stroking it through his pants.

"A-ah." Lelouch gasped. "Anya, a-are you sure about this?" He asked. This should have felt wrong. She was his sisters age, for crying out loud. So why didn't it feel wrong to him?

Anya was ecstatic that he hadn't pushed her away. "Yes, I am. I want this, Lelouch."

And so, after coming to terms with the fact that he didn't care about the fact that he was about to have sex with a sixteen year old girl, Lelouch just decided to go with it, damn the consequences.

* * *

**THIS IS A LEMON. NOTHING IMPORTANT STORYWISE, SO IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS TYPE OF MATERIAL, FEEL FREE TO SKIP. I'M USING BOLD LETTERS, LOOK AT ME! YOU CAN'T MISS ME AT ALLLLL!**

* * *

After throwing away his inhibitions, Lelouch decided to let himself actually stop and take a good _look_ at the girl straddling his waist.

Her pink shirt was pulled up, showing her small, perky breasts. Her skin, changed from her normal pale pigmentation due to this game world, was an exotic charcoal color, her nipples almost purple. His eyes ran down her flat stomach, all the way to her pink panties, which he noticed were becoming damp. He moved his hands from his sides, to run along her legs and inner thighs. He could tell from her sudden gasp that she liked what he was doing, and so he continued.

"Ah... ah. Ah! Lulu!" She cried out, her hands toying with her nipples. She lightly pinched and pulled the hardened nubs, ran her fingers over the areolae, and made certain to put on a show for her lover.

Lelouch appreciated the effort greatly, but he decided to take a more hands-on approach. Anya gasped as his hands trailed from her hips and thighs, up her sides, and eventually landed on her breasts. He lightly tweaked her nipples with his thumb and pointer finger, and began gently squeezing. "Do you like that?" He asked her.

"Y-yes." She replied.

"Good." The way he said it sent pleasant shivers up Anya's spine. She stared into those beautiful purple eyes of his, as he continued playing with her diminutive chest.

Was is strange that she found the entire "blue skinned boy with elf ears, purple nails, and a snowflake tattoo" thing extremely hot? Maybe. But it was happening right now, and she couldn't be happier. All of a sudden, Lelouch sat up, arms wrapping around her back to keep her from falling back. He leaned back against the headboard of the bed, holding Anya close to him. He nuzzled into her neck, leaving butterfly kisses here and there. He was so gentle, and she absolutely loved it.

The kisses trailed from her neck, to her chest. She moaned in ecstasy as his tongue found the nipple of her left breast, twirling around the nub and leaving it wet so that the cool air further stimulated it. He moved on to the other, doing the same, before pulling her into another kiss.

She pulled away after a few moments, panting. "Lulu, as much as I'm loving this, I want you _badly_." She whispered into his ear, capturing the lobe between her lips for a few seconds, before she pulled back again. She quickly threw her shirt off, and across the room. She leaned back, reaching for the hem of her panties suggestively. "I'll take yours off if you take mine." She offered, giving him an impish smile.

Lelouch chuckled. "Alright." With that said, he shifted so that his head was between her slightly spread legs, before his hands slipped under the hem of her panties. Slowly, he pulled the damp fabric away, grinning as he saw what lay behind them. Anya blushed, closing her eyes. They shot open a moment later, when Lelouch took a tentative lick.

"Oh! Lulu!" Anya yelped, arching her back. Within minutes, she was lying on her back, hands pressing Lelouch deeper into her core. "Y-yes, oh yes. More! Deeper! Ohhh!" She moaned, eyes closed in ecstasy. They snapped open as she felt herself releasing her first orgasm. "OooOOOoooHHH!" The pinkette yelled out, back arching so much that only her shoulders and bottom were touching the bed, before she fell flat on her back, panting. "That... was am-amazing... Lulu..." She muttered.

He leaned over her, whispering in her ear. "It isn't over yet... unless you'd like to stop?"

"No, don't stop. I wanna go all the way." Anya responded. She noticed the large bulge in his pants, and more importantly, the fact that he was still wearing pants. "Lie down." She told him.

Lelouch did as asked, lying on his back with his arms at his sides. Anya smiled, crawling over to him. Reached into the waistband of his pants, and pulled the things to his ankles in one swift motion. And then she just stared at the cock before her. "I think it'll fit." She said, nodding to herself. He was seven or eight inches, she guessed. The girl leaned forward, giving the head a kiss.

"Ahhhn..." Lelouch groaned, unused to such feelings. This encouraged Anya to keep kissing and licking his penis, trying to find out just how she could make Lelouch react. After a few minutes of this, she decided to move on.

She positioned herself above Lelouch's rod, her hand guiding the shaft into her dripping cunt. She slowly lowered herself, taking him in inch by inch until shit felt him pressing against her hymen. She gulped slightly, before deciding to just get it over with, and letting herself fall the rest of the way. She grunted, eyes tearing up. "Ow..." She muttered.

Lelouch sat himself up again, pulling Anya into a kiss. His hands rubbed her back, fingers trailing along her skin aimlessly. She pulled back a few moments later. "It doesn't hurt anymore. Go on..." She was eager to start, now that the hardest part was out of the way.

He smirked at her, before she suddenly found herself looking up at him, from her back. Anything she had to say about the change of position was cut of by gasps and moans of pleasure as he began thrusting. He started slowly at first, making sure not to hurt her.

He leaned over her, kissing her neck and chest, running his hands along her sides, playing with her hair, and all this while steadily pumping in and out of her.

It didn't take long before Anya felt herself coming for the second time that day. She announced it with a loud moan, and an uncontrolled bucking of her hips.

Lelouch felt himself getting closer, and pulled out of her so he didn't accidentally get her pregnant. Anya noticed this quickly, and shifted so she could pump her hand up and down his shaft quickly, bringing him to his climax after a few seconds. She smiled impishly, licking the white substance off of her fingers. "Doesn't taste too bad." She commented.

"Neither did you." Lelouch responded.

* * *

**LEMON IS OVER. NOW TIME FOR SOME HUMOR.**

* * *

As Anya and Lelouch were about to begin kissing again, something very important happened.

Someone began knocking on the door.

"Hey, Lelouch, Anya, you two up? The girls and I were gonna go find somethin' to eat." Gino announced, continuing his knocking.

Anya's eye's went wide, and she looked herself (and Lelouch) over. "Ohgodohgodohgod." She whispered, frantically. "We need to clean up!"

Lelouch frowned, his thoughts along the same line. "The inn does have plumbing, interestingly enough. More of those arcane runes and such. Just let me handle it for now, alright?" He whispered back, before speaking louder. "Give us a bit, Gino. We'll be out in a few."

"Alright. Hey, did'ya know this place had plumbing? Showers and everything, it's neat." He said, before he walked off.

Anya stopped hyperventilating, and the two decided the quickest way to clean themselves would be to take a shower together.

When they both arrived at the table the rest of the group were seated at in the pub, at the same time and with wet hair, C.C. jumped on the opportunity to tease them.

"Oh my, did you two decide to help eachother clean up?" She asked, a cheeky smile on her lips.

And so they both looked at eachother, then back at the table. "Yes." They both said at the same time.

The reactions were absolutely worth the effort of convincing them that it was just a joke, afterwards.

* * *

Yep. I've started writing more for this one. Dunno wtf was happening with FF's little "purge", but it seems to be completely nonexistent (If ERONINJA, a hentai story over 20 chapters long, didn't get deleted, I doubt anything happened at all.)

So yeah, I can write questionable smut within my stories again. Hip hip hurray.


End file.
